The university of the village: universities connecting with rural communities

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University of the Village was collaboration between the Universities of Falmouth, Surrey and Glamorgan and BT and interrogated the barriers facing rural communities in accessing university outreach programmes by exploring new modes of delivery, enhanced through Superfast Broadband. Principally it explored new ways of developing and delivering provision through a partnership model of universities and rural communities working together with internet providers and other local businesses. The project also proposed a learning model which focused upon community, rather than the individual and a creative, co-designed curriculum. The project worked with three village communities - St. Agnes (Cornwall); Ystrad Mynach (Wales); and Fernhurst (Surrey) - over a period of twelve months. The nature of the engagement differed between communities and was subject to the robustness of the broadband service, as well as additional local factors that affected the context of the engagements. There was limited success in our ability to connect the three communities together, but the project produced a set of highly successful outcomes, including additional activity within communities and insights into the benefits of superfast broadband for both universities and rural communities. It also successfully demonstrated the use of additional bandwidth to create co-presence in an online environment.