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Local community

About us

lOCAL COMMUNITY

Welcome to the University of Reading! We are committed to creating a University for Reading that positively benefits our local community and works in partnership to make an impactful contribution to the town and surrounding areas. 

The University of Reading's local community team

Meet the team

The community team at the University of Reading are small but mighty. There are many staff across different departments at the University that work with the local community. 

Molli Cleaver photo  Molli Cleaver, Community Relations Manager – Molli started this role in May 2022 but has been at the University since 2016. Prior to this she has worked in the Commercial Function at the University, was Reading University Students’ Union President 2019-20 and an undergraduate student at the University from 2016-19. 
Liz Butler photo
Liz Butler, Neighbourhood Complaints Officer – Liz is likely to be the first person you’ll speak to when you contact the University about a Neighbourhood Complaint.  Liz has been in the role since January 2021, but prior to that has held positions within the higher education sector over her career.  Liz’s hours are normally 7.30-1.30 Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
Sally Lloyd Evans photo
Dr Sally Lloyd-Evans, Associate Professor in Human Geography and Public Engagement with Community Research Fellow – Sally is a key driving force in working with local communities to understand the issues that matter to them most through community-led research. Sally was responsible for setting up the Whitley Researchers, a partnership between Whitley Community Development Association, local residents and the University of Reading, empowering local residents to conduct their own research, voice their own needs and devise solutions to local issues.
Alice Mpofu-Coles
Alice Mpofu-Coles - Community Action Research Assistant. Alice works with Dr Sally Lloyd-Evans, Associate Professor in Human Geography and Public Engagement with Community Research Fellow and the University’s Dean for Diversity and Inclusion Dr Alan Laville on the EDI strategy, Community Engagement, Inclusion, and other community research projects. She recently finished her PhD research on Identity, Intergenerational & Transnationalism of young immigrants from Zimbabwe in Human Geography.
Lucy My name is Lucy and I am currently a first year History BA student at the university. As a Student Community Champion I am excited to work with our wider community and build long term, positive relationships with others, where individuals and groups can feel as though their voices are being heard.
Sam  Hi I’m Sam, I’m a first-year student studying Building Surveying. I would say the main reason I wanted to be a Student Community Champion is to be involved with the community. I want to be able to help coordinate events and to make new relationships with people along the way.
Saloni I am Saloni studying Accounting and Business and am currently in my first year. I wanted to be a Student Community Champion as I wanted to provide something to the community from my end and help tie closer relationships. Being a part of the community it is my duty to do so.
Adorn I am Adorn, an undergraduate, first year law student who wanted to become a Student Community Champion in order to positively bring about social change within the wider community. Furthermore, I hope to understand the answer the needs of the community as a student community champion.
Kolatat My name is Kolatat. I am a real estate with urban planning and development student. I have become part of the Student Community Champions, as I am passionate about the civic societies and communities of positivism planning. Approaches to the communities surrounding and beyond the University of Reading would be tailored experiences to create the impact needed for each community, people, and environment.

More information about the team
Band plays in front of the campus Christmas tree

Visiting campus

Campus is open to everyone! We encourage you to come visit us and check out some of the amazing spaces we have to offer. Here are just a few: 

We have many pubs and cafes including Park House, the Library Café, Dolce Vita Café, Café Trilobite and more!

Information about opening times.

  • Cole Museum of Zoology
  • URE Museum
  • Museum of English Rural Life

The Harris Garden, the Wilderness and Whiteknights Lake.

Explore our beautiful green spaces using our self-guided nature trail and learn more about wildlife on campus. The nature trail is marked by a series of signs, each has a unique QR code.

SportsPark – you can find out more about the different facilities and community membership.

We have many pubs and cafes including Park House, the Library Café, Dolce Vita Café, Café Trilobite and more! More information about opening times.

University Library – use our library for reference and private study, except during the University Examinations Period. 

Why not explore campus by trying out the running routes created by Reading Students' Union? 

Did you know we have plenty of places on campus for you to fill up your water bottle for free? You can find them on our hydration map.

The Students’ Union also has lots of facilities to visit including Mojos Bar & Kitchen, Pearls Bubble Tea, Uni-Cuts hairdressers, Soul of Seoul oriental food shop, Mail Boxes Etc. and the student favourite Cerealworks, better known as Bagel Man!

You can find these places by downloading the Whiteknights Campus or London Road Campus maps.

Are you a community group or individual looking to book or hire a space on campus? We might be able to help! Email community@reading.ac.uk with your requirements.

More about campus spaces

Students living off campus

All students, whether living in University or privately rented accommodation, are part of the local community. The University takes pride in the value that our students bring to Reading but also recognises the challenge of integrating students with the wider population. 

We work closely with local authorities, including Reading Borough Council, Wokingham Borough Council and local police teams, to put in place a range of measures to help students settle into local neighbourhoods.

If you live next to a group of students we encourage you to go and introduce yourselves. It will help in building better relationships and may help our students in being better neighbours.

UoR Local Neighbourhood Guidance has been created to help students settle into the neighbourhood, provide information on being a considerate neighbour and prevent problems arising from differing lifestyles. It also outlines the steps students and local residents can take if they are facing an issue.

Hello Neighbour

To support our students who live in the local community and encourage them to be good neighbours we run our Hello Neighbour Campaign in partnership with Reading Students' Union and Reading Borough Council. This provides information to students on topics such as bins and recycling, parking, noise and safety. At the beginning and end of each academic year we go out into the student areas to drop off leaflets with this information. If you see the team out and about please feel free to speak to them.

We have created postcards so you can introduce yourself to your student neighbours. Knowing the students living next door can help build positive relationships and make it easier to handle any issues that may crop up over the next year.

If we haven’t posted on through your letterbox you can pick them up for free at the Students’ Union reception on Whiteknights Campus.

Neighbourhood complaints

We are working hard with Reading Students' Union, Reading Borough Council and Thames Valley Police to tackle neighbourhood issues, particularly in relation to waste and noise. 

When students arrive at the University they sign a Regulations for Student Conduct which sets out how they are expected to behave in the community, including respecting your neighbours and ensuring any house guests behave considerately. 

If you do have any issues here is some useful information to help get them resolved:

  • If this is the first time you have had an issue with your neighbour, please try to speak to them about the impacts their behaviour is having upon you. Choose a suitable time – preferably daytime and not at the time of a party or when alcohol has been consumed. Keep it friendly and informal and try to agree some boundaries. If you can resolve this through a discussion, this is more likely to lead to a positive relationship between you and your neighbours.
  • If you know the landlord or letting agency of your neighbours, you could also consider contacting them directly so that they can speak to their tenants.
  • Excessive noise or anti-social behaviour:
    • Call the local police on 101 or 999 if it’s an emergency or email RedlandswithParkNHPT@thamesvalley.police.uk.
    • Visit Reading Borough Council’s page on advice for dealing with noise nuisance.
    • Record the noise using The Noise App which can be downloaded for free.
    • Report the anti-social behaviour on the Reportable app which can be downloaded for free.
    • Call On-Campus Security on their 24-hour line to ask them to pass messages to the University Street Wardens if the issue is off-campus or to attend any issues on campus property – 0118 378 7799.
  • Excess waste, fly-tipping & litter:
    • Download the Love Clean Reading app and report the issue.
    • Report the issue to Reading Borough Council using this form.
    • You can find out more about fly-tipping on the Reading Borough Council page. 
  • You can also report neighbourhood complaints to us by emailing community@reading.ac.uk or calling 0118 378 3279 or 0118 378 3577. We take all complaints seriously and each will be investigated. If the University can identify the students we will consider carrying out disciplinary so it’s helpful if you are able to provide us with evidence if you feel comfortable doing so. We can also inform Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council to also investigate the matter.
 
 
More information

Street Wardens

The University Street Support Team (Street Wardens) provides advice to students socialising late at night, encouraging them to be responsible, respectful and safe when travelling through residential areas.

Since 2018, the highly trained and highly visible team have patrolled residential streets around the edges of campus in Redlands and Park wards between 10pm and 4am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. At busy bus stops the team encourages students to queue in an orderly manner, and keep noise volumes down. They also encourage students to recycle any bottles/glass before they board the bus or to take empties home with them.

The team will also support any vulnerable students who may have lost their friends, or are having trouble getting home late at night.

The University Street Support Team works in the following areas:

  • Queen’s Drive entrance/exit to campus, including Northcourt Avenue and Christchurch Green bus stop 
  • Melrose Avenue and surrounding streets, including Melrose Avenue bus stop 
  • Erleigh Road and surrounding streets 

If you see the team patrolling, please do stop and speak to them - they will listen to any concerns about poor behaviour on residential streets, and attend to issues if possible. Please note the team does not have police powers and cannot caution, arrest or disperse crowds. They also have no powers to close down excessively noisy house parties. If you experience these issues you should call the Thames Valley Police on 999 for an emergency or 101 for non-emergency issues.

More information about street wardens

Community action partnership

The University strategy has a core vision to become better engaged with the local community. To help achieve this, the Community Action Partnership was established in 2021 to support the University in exploring dynamic, exciting and innovative ways to connect to, support and value local communities in Berkshire. 

The Community Action Partnership is an internal, collaborative forum made up of nearly 100 University and Reading University Students’ Union staff and students to coordinate and share their work around community engagement and identify ways to work in partnership with individuals, community groups and organisations in Reading. 

In 2021 we carried out a listening exercise to identify how we can share our knowledge and resources to support external communities affected by the pandemic, meeting with over 40 community organisations including grassroots groups, charities and local agencies, such as Alliance for the Cohesion of Racial Equality (ACRE), charities such as Get Berkshire Active and local agencies including Reading Borough Council.

More Information about the Community Action Partnership

Reading Students' Union

Reading Students' Union is a student-led charity that is independent from the University. They support and represent all students at Reading through the services they provide, all with the aim to help students have the best possible time at the University of Reading. 

Although independent, Reading Students' Union and the University are working in partnership to improve engagement with local communities and increase the support provided to students living off campus.

You can find out more about Reading Students' Union by visiting their website or by getting in contact via email at enquiries@rusu.co.uk. 

Community led research

The University is involved in many community-led research projects.

The Participation Lab 

Aims to co-produce knowledge with communities and practitioners, provide research training and build capacity within and beyond the University of Reading. 

Established in 2016 by core members of the Human Geography Research Cluster, Sally Lloyd-Evans, Hilary Geoghegan and Ruth Evans with an Advisory Group of key partner organisations and practitioners, student representatives and staff, we  held our first Advisory Group meeting in September 2016. Since then, we have developed our activities and research in Reading through on-going partnership work with Reading Borough Council, Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality Equality, Reading City of Sanctuary and Reading Refugee Support Group and other third sector organisations.

Re-imagining the high street through your stories

This storytelling pilot project explores people’s stories of life on Oxford Road in Reading. Through community engagement with local residents and businesses it gives them a key role in deciding what they want to see happening on their high street, celebrating local heritage and the rich multicultural history of the area.

You can find out more about the project and check out the online exhibition.

The project was shortlisted for the University Research Engagement and Impact Awards 2022.

More information about the shortlisting. 

Whitley Researchers 

A partnership between Whitley Community Development Association, local residents and the University of Reading, empowering local residents to conduct their own research, voice their own needs and devise solutions to local issues.

Interested in why we work with local communities? Read this blog produced by Alice Mpofu-Coles and students about why community engagement with BAMER (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee) people is important in higher education.

Examples of community-led research

Community fund

Applications for the 2023 Community Fund are now open!

Up to £30,000 is available for use in the forthcoming academic year (2023/24) as part of the University’s Community Fund initiative. University staff members can apply for funding to support projects they are involved with either as part of their job, or in a voluntary capacity.

The scheme forms part of the University's commitment to working with and supporting the local community. When initially launched in 2021, the Community Fund only supported projects within the Reading area. The scheme has now been expanded to broaden the benefit to communities across the Thames Valley region.
The Community Fund will provide one-off, small awards (in the region of £1,000 per year), as well as larger awards (up to a maximum of £10,000 per year), on a one-off or multi-year basis.

Examples of projects previously supported include:

  • Helping a mixed ability rugby club expand
  • Funding vital supplies for a homeless charity
  • Supporting a multilingual storytelling project for local nurseries
  • Funding specialist equipment for an air quality in schools project
  • Supporting a refugee football team

How to apply for funding

Applications for Community Fund awards are now open.

University staff members are invited to apply for funding before the deadline of 30 June. Colleagues should review the guidance notes before making an application. 
The panel will meet in September to review and decide on the award applications.

Read more about the Community Fund

Sanctuary seekers

The University of Reading is committed to welcoming and including sanctuary seekers across our teaching, research and community activities. We value the rich contribution those seeking sanctuary can make to our institution and life in Reading.

We endorse the City of Sanctuary charter, recently renewed our pledge to Reading City of Sanctuary, and signed the national organisational pledge to City of Sanctuary. We are currently working to achieve the University of Sanctuary Award. 

Coffee bank for sanctuary seekers in campus cafes 

We are delighted to support the Reading City of Sanctuary Coffee Bank initiative in cafés on campus. Instead of ordering your usual cappuccino, buy two drinks and leave one in the bank to support local sanctuary seekers and Reading City of Sanctuary!

If you are a local sanctuary seeker you can visit one of our cafes and receive a hot drink from the bank. If you or someone you know is a sanctuary seeker then get in touch at community@reading.ac.uk to receive a coffee bank card.

If you are a sanctuary seeker or are interested in this work you can find out more.

 
More information about sanctuary seekers
People celebrating Reading Pride

Student volunteering

Each year, students give up their time to volunteer, many with local community groups and projects. 

Find out more about student volunteering.

If you have a volunteering opportunity for our students then get in touch community@reading.ac.uk and we can share across our channels.

Reading internship scheme

The Reading Internship Scheme offers University of Reading undergraduate students the opportunity to undertake 4 – 8 week paid internships with professionals. It allows organisations to connect with students who are motivated, proactive, and keen to experience the working-world.

By hiring one of our talented students, they will be able to assist you in a project that you may be looking to gain some extra resource in, or some work that could do with a fresh perspective, for up to 280 hours (8 week full time equivalent).

Support towards your intern’s salary whilst on their internship is available through the scheme. We provide profit earning organisations with a 50% contribution (with the employer matching the other 50%), and charities with 100% contribution to their intern’s salary.

More information about RIS for employers | University of Reading.

School outreach

Our UK Recruitment and Outreach team offers a huge range of free events, programmes and activities for students in primary schools, secondary schools and further education institutes to give them all the information they need about higher education and to enhance their subject knowledge and experience.

Visit our page to find out more about these activities and how to get in contact if you’d like to request a session.

Get in touch


If you have any questions about our community activity, ideas around community engagement, how to improve this page or have a neighbourhood complaint, please contact our Community Relations Team by email community@reading.ac.uk or call us on 0118 378 3279 or 0118 378 3577.

Business engagement

The University is already a key partner for businesses of all sizes, from multinational corporations to growing, innovative SMEs.

Visit our page to explore how your business could access our research, become a University supplier or ask your question by getting in touch with the Front Door.

Keep up to date


Follow our social media channels to find out what the University, our staff and students get up to:

  • Facebook: @theuniversityofreading
  • Twitter: @UniofReading
  • Instagram: uniofreading

Read the latest community related news coverage.

 
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