Enhancing the member experience

Questions

• Am I a member?

  Short answer is, probably! Long answer is, if you are part of a Member institution, as listed on our ‘member directory’, then you are a member. This is the case if you are an academic, in professional services, a student, or in any way employed by a Member institution.

  You may also hold dual or hybrid roles with policy organisations. We strongly encourage you to participate in this survey with all of your hats on.

  If your institution is not listed on our website, get in touch! We’d love to have you join the community, and you can still take the survey by choosing the ‘other’ option when asked for your institution.

• Is it anonymous?

  All the information that we collect about you during the course of this consultation will be kept strictly confidential, and all data is anonymised and deidentified. You will not be able to be identified in any ensuing reports or publications.

  We will ask you for your university, but only to track response rates across the membership.

  The only data will be able to identify is if you are an institutional lead, which is public information. Any data that you provide about your university will not be published publicly, and will be aggregated and published under categories (for example, university type, region, etc) which does not allow your institution to be identified unless you explicitly provide consent for this.

• Why should I take part?

  Engaging in this research will allow UPEN to be informed about its Members’ priorities and capacities to engage with UPEN as it scales up its activity. In addition, your involvement will support the development of sector-wide data on academic-policy engagement, which is currently missing or partial. Engagement in this survey will contribute to a wider public good.

• How will the data be handled and used?

  The results of this consultation will be aggregated and analysed, and presented to internal UPEN teams such as Co-Chairs, Co-Directors, Heads Of, Strategy Board Members, Advisory Board Members, and Exec Board Members. We will also present results to the Membership community itself through an online or in-person format. We may also publish these results in a journal publication.

  The data will be stored securely within UCL, under ethics 2804.

  You can find more information about data protection and privacy through the participant information sheet, which is presented to you when you first enter the consultation link.

• How long will it take?

  This consultation should take you between 10-15 minutes.

• When and where will you share findings?

  We will aim to share findings in Autumn 2026, through a UPEN event or Member Meeting. We may also seek to use the data to publish in a journal. The overall report will be published on the UPEN website.