ID243 Campus in the Community

The Idea

As part of continued efforts to make Keele more a part of the local community – through initiatives like Keele in Town, CLOCK, work with Port Vale FC and local charities, etc – we should also be looking to make our campus part of the community. A key way to do this is to bring the community onto campus much more than we currently do. 

This idea would of course require some investment to ensure our facilities and spaces were at their best – including investment on the “visitor offering” such as cafes, toilet facilities etc, to ensure that people coming onto campus had a positive experience and that campus was suitably “sticky” for them to stay for a long period or keep coming back.

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Bringing more people onto campus builds awareness of the University, its research and education, and also breaks down historic “town and gown” barriers. It also gives us an opportunity to build awareness and fondness of Keele with local people, potentially from an early age, which could aid recruitment now and into the future.

How We Would Implement This Idea

We know for example that one of our biggest assets is our green spaces, and we have walking and running routes on our website which we know some members of our local community use. We could make more of these spaces and facilities by holding more regular community events, better signposting to walking routes, working with race/walk providers and local charities to run events in the grounds, and more. A big part of this would also be through better promotion of the facilities available via communications both internally to staff and students and also externally through our partners and within the local community. Bringing people onto campus at no cost gives families and visitors to the area somewhere to go and enjoy local landscapes and fresh air in a low-cost way – making Keele an attractive place to visit over other local outdoor landmarks which require an entry fee. Money spent whilst on campus at eateries and outlets would lead to increased revenue compared to current weekend takings on campus. 

Keele Hall is also a major asset – one we make good use of on marketing materials and social media but that isn’t hugely accessible to the community except through weddings and conferencing. In line with the Reimagining Keele Hall as a Creative and Cultural Community Asset idea previously submitted, we would suggest making Keele Hall more of a visitor attraction, with exhibitions about the history of the building, workshops and events open to the community taking place more regularly, etc in addition to the ongoing need to increase commercial revenue in the space to ensure it continues to be available into the future. In the short term this could involve setting up a standing exhibition about the hall and its history, using materials already available in our University archives and local county archives as well. Longer term we could further improve the facilities at Keele Hall by creating a cafe on the ground floor overlooking the lawns, which dog walkers, runners, and residents could use, with outdoor seating on the terrace in nice weather, which would really add to this area of campus, and give our students an opportunity to make use of the Hall in a new way while they’re studying here. Making more use of Keele Hall would also really enhance messaging around the heritage of the University. 

More longer term activities could include hosting outdoor events like cinema nights on Keele Hall lawns, concerts in Keele Hall or the Clockhouse courtyards, installation trails like the Stick Man trail at Delamere Forest in Cheshire, light trails in the winter, etc. This builds upon work of ArtsKeele and others with our regular exhibitions and Keele Concerts, bringing people onto site to experience our campus in different ways. 

A big part of bringing the community onto campus would also be an enhanced Keele Day offer. In 2024 Keele Day became a Family Fun Day as part of our 75th anniversary celebrations, and we saw thousands of people come onto campus to enjoy activities during the day. This kind of event presents a real opportunity for us to build awareness of our campus and facilities within the local community to keep people coming back to campus, and to break down the “town and gown” separation, as well as building a fondness for Keele which may help with recruitment and philanthropy in future, but obviously requires some considerable investment in terms of colleagues to plan and facilitate this kind of event, and upgrades to facilities and accessibility to ensure our campus is as welcoming and open as we would like it to be. 

What Success Would Look Like

Improved awareness and perception of Keele within our local community – previously evidenced by YouGov survey, which could be redone in future to monitor progress. This could in turn increase student and staff recruitment from our local area as a short term and longer term goal through building a relationship with our community on an ongoing basis over many years. 

Increased footfall on campus – and associated increase in spending at on-campus outlets over weekends, which would boost income for the University at quieter points – notably over vacation periods.  

More connections with local businesses – potentially more interest in tenancy on campus (Keele Innovation District/KUSIP), which would again help with income generation in the long-term.