Putting the ‘Uni’ into Community: A three-year mixed methods pragmatic sequential evaluation of an innovative voluntary and community sector collaborative partnership with a UK University

Evidence for a triangular partnership of individual student volunteers, universities, and voluntary and community sector (VCSE) groups show multiple benefits. This paper presents a 3-year mixed-method pragmatic sequential evaluation of an innovative and ambitious project, which aimed to bring assets of the VCSE and higher education together. The researchers conducted yearly focus groups and semistructured interviews with key individuals involved in the project with additional online questionnaires with students and local VCSE groups. Universities around the UK increasingly build partnerships with VCSE organizations and communities, but these are not without their challenges. This evaluation has highlighted that successful partnerships are those whereby partners can exchange values and aims they deem worth striving for, and where they are urged to continually consider these intended outcomes of the partnership during the process.