The University of Salford gives Manchester a smarter city future
Gemma McNeilis, Smith & Smith PR
The University of Salford has a rich history stretching back to 1896, but if you thought Salford was all about flat caps, factory smog and Coronation Street – think again.
On the Thursday of De Bono Creativity & Innovation week the University of Salford ran an innovative workshop at ThinkLabto explore how universities and communities can work together to create a smarter future for Greater Manchester .
During the morning academics and their invited community partners worked with a De Bono facilitator to explore key issues and share best practices for successful community engagement. For the afternoon session a group of school children from local school St Ambrose Barlow RC, were asked for their ideas about community engagement with universities. The idea was that each session would draw out five specific issues and the results would be compared to see if the young people’s issues in any way reflected their elders. It was also hoped that the five issues would be considered during the period of time leading up to the final Smart City Futures conference in July 2009.
It was planned that this information could be distilled down to five issues but there was no chance... the list was endless!There were some similarities, both the adults and the children spoke about the universities integrating better into the education system, the need for more community work, emphasis on community involvement from all areas and using students as ambassadors.
Thinking creatively meant there was certainly no shortage of views... and through initiatives such as Smart City Futures and working with the The Edward De Bono Foundation UK the University of Salford is positioning itself at the leading edge of higher education institutions in this country.