Collaborative events with partners are one of the ways we support the exchange of information and expertise between our researchers, academics, students and different external communities.
Established over 180 years ago as London’s first Polytechnic, the University of Westminster has a history of educating the working people of London. Our commitment to facilitate and strengthen the exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise with our diverse local, national and international communities continues to this day.
We host a rich and vibrant calendar of public and community engagement activities – including public lectures, festivals, workshops and exhibitions. These reflect our ethos to inform, share, and converse with the public about our work and its impact. Such gatherings enable speakers and guests to network with other organisations and individuals with similar interests.
To date, in 2023, we have collaborated with several key partners to deliver a series of public events to encourage discussion and debate around some of the society’s greatest challenges, from creating a gender equal world to using inclusion and diversity to help business to grow.
Empowering women and improving gender equality
Social enterprises are businesses committed to social justice, which includes creating jobs, opening up opportunities and tackling patriarchal attitudes in a world dominated by gender inequality. On average, 61% of the workforce at social enterprises are women, compared to 48% of the national average.
Since November 2021, in partnership with Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), our academics have run a series of practical workshops with participating social enterprises. Our goal is to help them develop strategies to achieve gender equality and empower the women they employ or support, in line with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 5. Previous events have explored areas such as creating a theory of change, design thinking and impact measurement.
In January, over 50 SEUK members learned about the University’s gender empowerment participatory research project co-created with with social enterprises, their women beneficiaries and SEUK. Dr Lilian Miles, Dr Maria Granados and Dr Anastasia Alexeeva have created a Gender Empowerment Guide. The Guide showcases best practice, potential challenges, and examples of indicators to measure the effectiveness and impact of gender empowerment practices.
We celebrated our partnership with the University of Westminster with fantastic event in January. Bringing social enterprises together to discuss what gender empowerment means to them, best practice and how to achieve more going forwards. A very inspiring evening!
Christopher Morgan, Social Enterprise UK
How diversity can help businesses to grow
In February, the University teamed up with London-based networking organisation Westminster Business Council to host a workshop focusing on inclusive business practices. Hosted by Dr Randhir Auluck, Head of the School of Organisations, Economy and Society within Westminster Business School, it brought together three experts to discuss how inclusion and diversity can lead businesses to grow in their experience.
Asari St Hill is an Independent Diversity Adviser with the Irish and National Centre for Diversity (NCfD), gave a presentation which demonstrated the positive impact inclusivity has on the bottom line. He revealed that companies with diverse leadership attain 73% more revenue through innovation and are 33% more likely to outperform less diverse companies in terms of profit.
Meanwhile, Senior Lecturer Naseem Joban and award-winning entrepreneur, CEO and marketing strategist Leonard Sekyona informed the audience of an
exciting diversity project within the University. To boost confidence and employability and improve academic results among black and ethnic minority students, they jointly reviewed a Leadership module to increase representation through role models. Leonard himself recently spoke to and inspired third-year Business Management and Marketing students.
The goal is to build the confidence and identities of the students. To do this, the team gathers empirical data through qualitative and quantitative research to find out what approaches were most effective. Next, the researchers hope to encourage employers to see the competencies of Westminster students, and identify further graduate opportunities in the workplaced for minority students who were denied them.
I feel that it's our responsibility to equip the next generation with our time, tools and experience in order to increase their chances of progress and inclusion in the media and advertising world. I look forwards to more conversations this year.
Leonard Sekyonda, Founder and Producer at MYCOMEUP MEDIA
Using artificial intelligence to enhance business practices
In May, we hosted an evening of discussion and networking centred on the use of AI within business. Industry professionals joined students and representatives from our own and other universities to make valuable connections and discuss how developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are being used to assist business and corporate practices.
An expert multidisciplinary panel of the University’s researchers gave an update on some exciting AI research projects taking place in the areas of communications, healthcare, and manufacturing. It featured:
- Dr Andrea Medrado, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Media and Communication and Vice President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Her AI for Social Good? project has brought together underrepresented young tech activists and app developers to explore how, and to what extent, AI technologies reproduce real-world inequalities.
- Dr Tom Nadarzynski, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, whose work focuses on sexual health and behavioural psychology. He is involved in a project to raise the uptake of screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/HIV among minority ethnic communities. An automated AI-driven chatbot will provide advice and reduce hesitancy for STI/HIV screening in those at higher risk of infection.
- Huseyin Dagdeviren, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and member of the University's Centre for Parallel Computing (CPC). Working with 24 European SMEs, he was part of a project to develop CloudSME, a cloud-based simulation platform for manufacturing and engineering. The project successfully implemented 12 industry quality demonstrators, some already market ready.
- Dr Artie Basukoski, a Senior Lecturer Computer Science and Engineering and member of the University’s Health and Social Care Modelling Group. His research interests include AI, process mining, automated reasoning, and specification and verification of software. He has established an Applied AI module for final-year undergraduate students and is currently developing an MSc Applied AI.
What an attendee says
Thank you for organising such a lovely evening. You have all put together a brilliant initiative and I hope to see you at many more such events!
Anoushka Kekre, The Washing Machine Project
Would you like to get involved?
We regularly bring together employers, professionals and businesses to share knowledge and exchange ideas with our 3,840 staff, over 19,000 students and 180,000 graduates. If your organisation would be interested in co-hosting an event with the University on a current topic, we’d love to hear from you. Please fill in this short form or email the Business Engagement Team on [email protected].