Written evidence submitted by Imperial College London (COM0071)

 

This submission focuses specifically on:

-          “The communications strategies being taken to encourage young people to study STEM subjects in higher and further education, and to encourage those people towards STEM careers”

-          “The balance of effort needed to increase public engagement in science by 'new audiences' and by the 'already interested'

-          “The strategies and actions being taken by Government to foster public engagement”.

 

Imperial College’s Science Communications Unit has made a separate submission with respect to professional communication by scientists; interactions between scientists and members of the public; and the media representation of science.

“The communications strategies being taken to encourage young people to study STEM subjects in higher and further education, and to encourage those people towards STEM careers”

  1. In its strategy for 2015-20 Imperial College aspires to “share the wonder and importance of what we do…by harnessing the creativity and passion of [our] people and engaging with our partners…to create further opportunities to nurture the innate curiosity and desire to learn in the public and young people”.  The strategy that the College has developed to encourage young people to study STEM subjects and to consider STEM careers is based on targeting communication at different stages of their development and engaging different parts of the College community where most appropriate. Our activities begin at primary schools where young people are encouraged to talk about, engage with and participate in science; then there are interactions at key decision points, such as choosing to study science further at secondary school, or choosing to study a STEM subject at a university like Imperial.  With regard to widening participation the College’s approach to communication is complementary, as stated in its Access Agreement: “raising the aspirations and attainment of school children, supporting science teaching in schools and informing subject choice at GCSE and A-level”.  

 

Summary

 

Nurturing innate curiosity and the desire to learn. 

  1. To nurture curiosity requires a commitment to linking science creatively with real-life issues – for example, social, environmental and ethical questions.   This approach applies as much to the very youngest minds in primary schools as to lifelong learners. The more we can help pupils from a young age to understand and reflect upon the world around them, the more likely they will be to want to continue to study science higher up the education system.  Imperial finds that children often want to discuss ethical values, such as animal research and genetic modification, subjects which stimulate projects and essay writing.  As science communication is a two-way process, it is important that universities listen to young people’s views and as a result modify their own opinions.  It is not effective for scientists only to communicate to young people top-down.

 

Imperial has found the recent Vision Report from the Royal Society helpful.

https://royalsociety.org/~/media/education/policy/vision/reports/vision-full-report-20140625.pdf

  1. The College increasingly forms its targeted communications and outreach programmes with young people around relevant and timely science issues.  Coverage of major national events - such as Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) – has provided opportunities to connect with young people. For example, Imperial has been bringing the universe to pupils of all ages, across the country, with its new inflatable planetarium.  Imperial has also acquired 100 rocket seeds that were sent up to the ISS and have now come back down to earth, along with 100 ‘control’ rocket seeds that stayed on terra firma.  The Outreach Team is working with school pupils to grow these seeds and to think about conditions on the ISS versus planet Earth.  Giving pupils the opportunity to come into contact with such exciting and topical STEM subjects in a hands-on way will fuel their passion and interest to want to know more.

 

  1. In many of its targeted outreach programmes, the College (through its Early Career Researchers) regularly presents its latest research to young people and builds on their interests in global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, and the potential energy crisis.  This makes science relevant and topical. Though most young people still find out about science from traditional, well-established channels (such as children’s science programmes), the media used to deliver science campaigns and programmes in the future will need to reflect the viewing or ‘interacting’ habits of younger audiences.  This will include social media, free digital content with a ‘learner’ focus, gaming and apps which the university sector could help to develop by tapping into its staff and media-savvy student populations.  Furthermore, universities can help to find new, engaging and surprising ways of connecting science with everyday life which will be very appealing and memorable to a younger audience.

 

Raising aspirations. 

 

  1. Outreach activities aimed at raising aspirations for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds at secondary school need to be inspiring, supportive and as practical as possible.  Inspirational talks by academic staff, professional practitioners and students in schools and on campuses can be very effective in terms of raising aspirations.  Cohort programmes (as well as summer schools) with multiple points of contact and intervention can change pupils’ perspective of STEM due to the longer-term support on offer.  They are seen to be particularly effective as a model for inspiring, and increasing the motivation of, disadvantaged young people thinking about studying science. In particular, activities are often led or supported by bright, engaged students of the same gender or ethnic background as schoolchildren (and not much older) who are inspirational role models.

 

  1. Other events such as taster days, lectures, work experience placements and science festivals remain core activities to raise aspirations and communicate the impact of STEM on the real world.  Effective evaluation of models of communicating and inspiring with young people is challenging.  It is an area which is developing at universities, with a number of PhD students at Imperial starting to work in collaboration with experts in education and social science.

 

Practical science

 

  1. Most students get interested in science because they can do exciting experiments and try things out for themselves.  Imperial College is concerned that changes to school science curricula will reduce the amount of practical work young people experience and lessen their enthusiasm for ‘doing science’.  The College has a well-established purpose-built and multi-disciplinary schools’ laboratory (the Wohl Reach Out Lab) which delivers curriculum-enhanced STEM activities to young people and teachers through practical sessions both in the sense of formal learning and skills development.  This facility is particularly necessary as many schools have inadequate facilities for teaching in this manner and can often suffer from a shortage of lab technicians. In addition, researchers – from those at the early stages in their career through to professors – demonstrate exciting practical science to young people on university campuses using the most sophisticated and exciting apparatus (for example carbon capture plants or surgical demonstrations). 

 

 

Engaging with partners and science teaching in schools 

 

  1. School teachers are at the forefront of communicating with young people. Imperial has established programmes such as Reaching Further, a hub and spoke programme with partner schools, which trains researchers in public engagement techniques.  The new skills they acquire are utilised to deliver presentations and lessons to young people based on their current research and to develop practical activities with teachers that will enhance the STEM curriculum taught in those schools and their affiliates. The mutual sharing of ideas, research and expertise between researchers and teachers has led to new resources for helping schools communicate about science in the classroom.  In the primary sector, with Twig World Ltd, the College has developed Reach Out CPD, a digital resource providing teachers with content and ideas to engage primary school children in the wonder of science. 

 

  1. The College provides a number of degree-based programmes to help train teachers in subjects such as Physics, Chemistry and Maths and, more crucially, runs a bespoke PGCE programme (INSPIRE) for postgraduates in these subjects to train to become STEM secondary teachers.  Regular Twilight Teacher Focus groups are held within the Wohl Reach Out Lab, to bring STEM teachers into contact with our research community and to learn exciting new advances from them that they have to take into the classroom to stimulate and enhance the curriculum.  The College also supports partner schools by providing intensive and targeted STEM curriculum enhancement activities to groups of pupils in the Wohl Reach Out Lab.  However, without comprehensively addressing the shortage of inspirational specialist science teachers in schools the pipeline into STEM-related disciplines will remain a major challenge. 

 

Student decision-making 

  1. When students are making decisions about what to study at A- level (or equivalent) or at degree-level, communication strategies need to build beyond sharing the wonder of STEM subjects to provide relevant information to prospective students.  This can be a difficult time for young people who are making important decisions about their future: universities must provide clear information to them and other influencers such as their parents or guardians on course content, finances and the diversity of outcomes that a future in STEM can deliver.  This information should be communicated in a number of ways: directly into schools, through materials such as prospectuses and websites, and on campuses through Open Days and visits. Imperial also holds an annual event for School Advisors and Counsellors focussing on developments in its own curriculum and admissions criteria.  In the future it is anticipated that there will be increasing amounts of personalised and digital content from schools and universities focussed on specific issues (for example social media narratives to promote the value of some scientific disciplines to women). 

 

Communicating with students while at university. 

  1. Imperial College London has many opportunities for students to experience specialist training in STEM subjects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as to experience the interdisciplinary nature of its research.  The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Placements scheme, for example, provides many students with first-hand insight into a career as a researcher; the majority of academic courses have some sort of placement or industrial opportunity; there is a dedicated enterprise team to support students to become budding innovators. Universities should act as a fertile ecosystem for talented STEM students to communicate with experts, peers and the public (including young people) thereby feeding back into the communications cycle. Imperial also has two dedicated Science Communication MSc programmes that aim at training a new generation of professional science communicators in a variety of media, as well as giving them the necessary theoretical and conceptual background. 

 

Careers

  1. Imperial College believes that students should have complete freedom in their choice of career path and the industry sector they prefer to work in. Given the nature of our degree programmes and the imbalance in graduate recruitment budgets across different sectors, we make every effort to ensure a level playing field for all industry sectors in relation to recruitment of Imperial students.  The Careers Service advertises graduate and placement opportunities on behalf of employers for free.  The Service also runs a wide programme of employer engagement activities to encourage students to connect with employers.  These include annual Careers Fairs for careers in Engineering, Science, Technology; Forums in Energy, Science, Manufacturing, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Charity and Not for Profit Sectors; Themed Weeks on topics including the Environment, Science Communication and Enterprise.  The Careers Service encourages recruiters to engage in our skills development workshop programme for students and attempts to ensure a balance between different sectors.

 

  1. The Careers Service also encourages alumni of the College to support the development of current students through mentoring, recruiter and professional in-residence sessions as well as alumni/student networking events.  The team of professional Careers Consultants and Placement Advisers endeavours to stay up to date with opportunities across all sectors meeting with and visiting employers on a regular basis. The Academic departments work closely with industry to ensure relevance and engagement within the curriculum hosting visits and guest speakers from industry sectors.

 

 

“The strategies and actions being taken by Government to foster public engagement”.

Summary:

 

  1. The PE manifesto helped leverage resource for the College to put in place more support for PE. The public featured as a key audience for the College for the first time in its 2010-14 strategy and PE features as one of the key themes in the current College Strategy (2015-2020). Imperial has established new platforms to enable staff and students to carry out PE with research. These include institution-wide initiatives, such as the Imperial Festival and Fringe programme. There are formal structures in place to support public engagement. In 2014, Professor Maggie Dallman was appointed as Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships), a new senior academic leadership position to champion a broader level of external engagement across the College. Several departments have their own full time or part time PE staff, and activity is often greater in these departments, but this is inconsistent across the institution. 

 

  1. We have strong foundations but there is much work to be done to overcome barriers to engagement and improve the quantity and quality of public engagement activity. In summer 2015, Imperial College carried out staff survey to capture participation in ‘Outreach’ (public engagement) and attitudes towards it.

 

•                     The majority of respondents (90%) felt that outreach is important or very important for the mission of the College.

•                     A large number of respondents (75%) felt that outreach is ‘only occasionally’, ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ recognised or rewarded. It was widely felt that outreach is not sufficiently valued and sometimes even stigmatised as being less worthwhile than other forms of work at the College.

•                     Availability of time was considered to be the biggest constraint. There were many concerns that outreach often has to be done ‘on the side’ and cannot always be pursued legitimately.

•                     The driving motivations for carrying out outreach were to inspire and inform, and/or widening participation. In general, there was less interest or comment from respondents on deeper levels of engagement and interaction with the public – e.g. involving the public directly in research, although there were hints.

 

  1. In 2015, Imperial College successfully applied to the RCUK Catalyst Seed Fund, enabling the recruitment of a new Public Engagement Manager for one year.  The objectives of our CSF proposal are to:
  1. clarify and strengthen institutional awareness and understanding of how PE can contribute to research
  2. put in place institutional schemes for overcoming identified barriers and developing ways to support and recognise good practice for PE with research
  3. explore ways of securing formal time commitment within departmental work plans and appropriate funding provision
  4. develop appropriate practical help, guidance and resources

 

This new post is helping to catalyse this activity, but is due to finish Autumn 2016. Currently there is no confirmed source for continuation funding.

  1. We are unlikely to achieve a culture of public engagement at Imperial College and increase our capacity for public engagement without continued support from the government. Our priorities for government support would be:

•                     Continuing to affirm the strategic importance of Public Engagement with research and expecting organisations they fund to do the same

•                     Continuing to address the need for culture change in the research profession, recognising that engagement should be a core professional competence of researchers and policy makers

•                     Leveraging public investment in science and culture to incentivise excellence in engagement, recognising that engagement requires resources and expertise to be done well. 

•                     Continuing to invest in infrastructure that catalyses more effective support for and uptake of public engagement

•                     Continuing to invest in evaluation and research to sustain a thriving, learning culture where continuous improvement is the norm

 

The balance of effort needed to increase public engagement in science by 'new audiences' and by the 'already interested’.

Summary:

•                     Many institutions, including Imperial College London, have a sophisticated approach to targeting audiences in ways that meet their specific organisational objectives, as well as bringing benefits to all audiences involved.

•                     ‘New audiences’ and ‘already interested’ is an oversimplification of the issue. It would be more helpful to focus on enabling high-quality, sustainable engagement across a diverse range of audiences. 

 

  1. Imperial College has recently devised a Societal Engagement Framework through which we target four broad areas of engagement. Each area will have a specific strategy and objectives, however in practice there are significant areas of overlap and we will encourage this to achieve the greatest potential with our resources.

•                     Schools Outreach and Widening Participation

•                     Local Community Engagement

•                     Patient Engagement

•                     Engagement with research

 

Already Interested

  1. Our annual major festival and smaller bi-monthly fringe events together attract 20,000 visitors to Imperial College. Each year 50% of these visitors are new audiences for Imperial, but they are likely already interested in science which is their motivation for attending these events. In these cases, we see our role as 1. Nurturing and growing this interest 2. Enabling audiences to get involved in our research 3. Being transparent about our research and providing access to relevant and contemporary research in the fast moving STEM fields 4. Generating a longer term relationships with Imperial College through the life-long learning opportunities we provide.

New Audiences

  1. ‘New audiences’ can mean ‘new audiences’ to Imperial College and/or ‘new audiences’ to science. It can also mean ‘hard to reach’ audiences. We are growing our focus and developing initiatives to engage new audiences to science and universities, as well as new audiences to Imperial specifically. Some examples of initiatives are listed below. Our reason for this are 1. To diversify the pipeline of STEM students and to diversity the workforce at Imperial and beyond 2. To inspire people about learning and remove the notion of the University as an Ivory Tower 3. To gain new perspectives on our research and teaching 4. To be an active member of the community of which we are part.

 

Pop up science shops:

  1. The Heart and Lung Repair Shop was a pop-up science shop in Hammersmith’s Kings Mall, open for two weeks in Summer 2014 and again in Summer 2015. It was delivered by Imperial’s National Heart and Lunch Institute with funding from the Wellcome Trust.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/interact/public-engagement/heart-and-lung-repair-shop/

Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/opal

  1. The OPAL concept involves taking experts into the heart of communities to explore and investigate the natural world with local people. Citizens who participate can contribute data about their local environment, via national surveys, to research projects focusing on topics including environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and climate change. By bringing scientists, amateur-experts, local interest groups, policy makers and the public closer together, OPAL aims to form lasting relationships and ensure environmental issues of local and global relevance are discussed and investigated.

 

Imperial’s new Campus in White City, West London

  1. Imperial believes that engaging with the local communities of which we are a part is crucial for achieving societal impact. Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial has been a centre of education, research and innovation in the South Kensington “Albertopolis” district of London, but now we have the opportunity to open ourselves up to new forms of engagement and collaboration at our White City Campus. Our community engagement plan will be focused on launching both a programme of activity and a dedicated physical space for engagement at White City.

•                     White City community engagement programme –developing a deeper understanding of the area, building sustained relationships, and extending the range of services the College offers to encourage participation and engagement.

•                     Engagement and Creativity Hub at White City – to position the College as a positive force for change – open to new conversations, new collaborations, new ideas

Conclusion:

  1. We should to avoid valuing one type of audience engagement above another. Instead, we should be empowering organisations to carry out high quality and sustainable engagement. At Imperial we need flexibility, in terms of support we receive from government, to carry out public engagement that meets the needs of Imperial, as well as meeting the needs and bringing benefits for all parties’ involved, as well as our wider society.

 

  1. Government and funding bodies need to recognise that high quality engagement takes time and resources and needs to be embedded in our processes and approaches.

 

  1. Ideally we will sustain our relationships with audiences - they may start out as new audiences and go one to become interested audiences and eventually become confident champions or confident challengers of our processes and our research – helping ensure a culture of openness and transparency around science.

 

 

April 2016