Building external engagement through awareness, trust and convergence at Leeds University Business School

We are pleased to welcome Leeds University Business School as a new Accelerator Member of the UIIN community. Through its external engagement work, the Business School is developing a more connected approach to partnerships, one that brings together student experience, research collaboration, executive education, alumni engagement, and civic contribution. 

We spoke with Anna France, Senior Relationship and Partnership Manager, and David Gardner, Strategy & Operations Manager, from the external engagement team about how Leeds University Business School is making external engagement easier to understand, easier to access, and more embedded in the way the institution works. 

Making engagement part of the core 

For Leeds University Business School, the work is not about creating a separate layer of activity around partnerships. It is about changing how engagement is understood from within the School, so that working with external partners becomes part of teaching, research, and the student journey rather than an additional task. 

“Collaboration with industry is something that is fundamental, not an added on. This is intrinsic to everything we do at the Business School.” 

That shift has been led and supported by senior leadership, and is now being built through practice. The external engagement team began its work around four years ago, with space to explore what was already happening and where clearer structures were needed. In a large university setting, where relationships often sit within individual faculties, teams, or academic networks, the first challenge was not simply to build new partnerships. It was to understand the relationships already in place and create a model that could add value without taking ownership away from those who had built them. 

This is where the team’s role as a connector has become important. It works across student experience and research, while also feeding learning back into wider conversations about business engagement, enterprise, systems, and strategy. 

Awareness as the first challenge 

Whilst discussing challenges, there is no hesitation regarding which has been the main one in their experience: awareness. This is bidirectional. Externally, businesses and community organisations need to understand what the Business School can do both with, and for, them. Internally, colleagues need a clearer view of the relationships, activities, and opportunities that already exist.

For the team, awareness is not just about promotion. It is about navigation. Universities can be difficult places for external partners to understand, particularly for smaller organisations or those approaching the institution for the first time. Knowing where to start, who to speak to, or whether they are even able to come onto campus can become a barrier before any substantive conversation begins. 

Leeds University Business School has therefore focused on making its offer clearer and more accessible. Rather than expecting partners to understand internal structures, the team has worked to create a simpler front door into the School’s engagement activity. 

Three engagement pillars 

One of the earliest examples of this approach was the Business Open Day. Modelled on the idea of a student open day, it invited local businesses to come into the Business School and understand how they could work with it..The event also helped the team articulate its offer through three clear pathways: 

• Collaborate: research-facing activity, including knowledge transfer partnerships, consultancy, and other ways for external partners to work with the Business School’s academic expertise. 

• Inspire: opportunities for external partners to contribute to the student experience, from mentoring and guest lectures to student projects, internships, guest judging, and curriculum-based activity. 

• Learn: executive education and professional development, including small business programmes, customised learning, and other ways for partners to build capability through the Business School. 

“The three pillars – Collaborate, Inspire, and Learn – have become a key part of who we are.” 

The strength of the model lies in its simplicity. It gives external partners a way to understand the Business School’s offer without needing to know the internal logic of academic departments or professional service teams. It also gives staff a shared language for talking about engagement. 

Over time, the ambition is not simply to keep these pathways separate, but to create convergence between them. A partner may first contribute through a guest lecture, then become interested in executive education, and later explore a research collaboration. The relationship is allowed to develop gradually, rather than being forced into a predetermined category too early. 

From first contact to deeper relationship 

This progression is already visible in the team’s work. Anna described a senior contact from the Bank of England who had been involved in student-facing activity, including guest talks and keynote contributions, before later expressing interest in one of the Business School’s executive education courses. 

The example is modest, but it captures the operating logic of the model. Engagement begins with a clear and manageable invitation. Over time, familiarity builds. The partner starts to feel part of the Business School’s community and becomes more aware of other ways to engage. 

This is particularly important because student-facing activity is often the easiest entry point. Industry professionals are keen to share experience, students are highly receptive to hearing from people working in practice, and the value of the interaction is immediately visible. Programmes such as MBA masterclasses, Leaders in Residence, Entrepreneurs in Residence, mentoring, guest judging, and curriculum-based activity give partners a practical way to contribute. 

The longer-term challenge is to translate some of those relationships into research collaboration. That takes more time, more trust, and a clearer understanding of mutual priorities. The team is now working more deliberately on who it works with, why those relationships matter, and where more strategic partnerships might be developed. 

Trust inside the institution 

The external engagement team’s work is as internal as it is external. Many academics already have relationships with companies, public bodies, charities, or alumni. The team’s task is not to take over those relationships, but to support them. 

“We spent a lot of time building that trust. And building those relationships with academics to not be seen as any kind of threat.” 

That distinction matters. Academics may be willing to share that they work with a company, but not necessarily the detail of a contact or relationship. For the team, even that partial knowledge is useful. It helps create a better picture of activity across the Business School and opens the possibility of support when needed. 

Trust also shows up in practical delivery. When an academic asks the team to help with an event, they are relying on the team to protect their credibility with external contacts. In that sense, event management, relationship handling, and internal coordination are not administrative extras. They are part of the infrastructure that makes engagement possible. 

Systems, evidence and the work behind the work 

As engagement grows, Leeds University Business School is also confronting a more technical challenge: how to capture relationships, track activity, and use information intelligently. The team has been involved in reporting on multiple strategies and feeding into wider university-level conversations about business engagement and enterprise. 

This includes work with central teams on databases and CRM systems. It is not the most visible part of partnership building, but it is increasingly necessary. Without consistent systems, it is difficult to understand where relationships sit, where resource should be focused, and how different parts of the university can work together more effectively. 

The challenge is not unique to Leeds. The team recognised, through peer exchange, that many universities are grappling with the same issue. For the Business School, the goal is not simply better reporting, but better decision-making: using information to understand where engagement is working, where demand is growing, and where future effort should be directed. 

A civic role in the city 

While industry engagement is central to the work, Leeds University Business School is deliberately not positioning itself only around business in a narrow sense. Its external engagement agenda includes public, private, and third sector partners, with civic engagement becoming an important part of its identity. 

Anna described recent work with a community foundation around the social value of businesses, and linked this to the Business School’s place within Leeds. The ambition is to be part of the city, not distant from it. 

“We don’t want to be the kind of business school at the top of the hill.” 

This civic orientation is both leadership-led and felt within the Business School. For some academics, engagement was already second nature. Others are curious but need support to understand how it can fit alongside teaching and research. The next stage is to identify those different starting points and create routes for more colleagues to participate. 

Looking ahead 

Leeds University Business School is entering a period of reflection and renewal around its engagement strategy. The three pillars remain central, but they will continue to evolve as the School learns from partners, colleagues, alumni and the wider university. 

The next step is to strengthen coordination across teams and connect engagement more deliberately with alumni and international activity. The underlying philosophy remains clear: make engagement easier to access, build relationships patiently, and use each interaction as a route into something more connected. 

For Leeds University Business School, partnership work is not only about external visibility. It is also about building the internal confidence, systems and shared language needed to make collaboration part of how the institution operates. 

Join a global community shaping the future of universities

Leeds Business School is one of many universities around the world redefining how higher education engages with industry, government, and society. As a UIIN Member, you’ll gain access to this global network of forward-thinking institutions, connect with peers tackling similar challenges, and exchange insights on innovation, entrepreneurship, and societal impact.

Whether you want to strengthen your partnerships, build internal capacity, or stay ahead of emerging trends — UIIN Membership gives you the platform and connections to do it.

Luca Barbera (author) is a Project Officer at UIIN. His work encompasses a broad spectrum of research topics, including sustainability, deep tech, engagement practices for universities and academics, with a particular emphasis on the valorisation of results.