Our civic mission

At the OU in Wales, we want to make sure that our work makes a difference to people, society and our planet. 

We call this our civic mission. It’s something that fits perfectly with the OU’s values.

Our approach

For us, civic mission is based on five areas:

• Rooted in societal need: our work begins with identifying and understanding real life challenges.
• Co-creation with partners: our projects are always co-designed to make sure they’re relevant and draw on different expertise.
• Building lasting relationships: we invest in our links with partners over the long-term.
• Linked to national goals: our activities align with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (Wales) and other national priorities.
• Student involvement: we want to involve more students in our civic work, which can enhance their learning experience.

Here’s why civic mission matches what we do:

• It’s part of our DNA: our aims, values, and heritage mean that civic engagement isn’t just an add-on – it's why we’re here.
• We can reach across Wales: we’re truly a national institution with students in every local authority in Wales. This means we can reach people and communities everywhere.
• Our community is diverse: our students and staff come from varied backgrounds, which brings a wealth of experiences.
• We can use expertise across the UK: as part of a larger, world-renowned university, we can draw upon the immense skills, experiences, resources, and best practices from across the four nations of the UK.
• The way we teach: our unique teaching model means that we can combine new routes into university with making a difference to civic life in Wales.

We’re the only university in Wales represented on  all three Regional Civic Engagement Partnerships. Funded by Medr, these bring together regional universities and colleges with other learning providers and civic institutions to address local challenges.

• We have 110 different partner organisations across sectors involved in co-design or research, knowledge exchange and engagement.
• We work with all 12 further education colleges in Wales. In 2024-25, we reached over 3,500 learners.
• Through our work with other organisations, we’re bringing free learning to homes and communities across Wales through our OpenLearn courses and OpenTalks series on Youtube.

Here are some recent OU in Wales projects which show how our work is contributing to Wales’ civic mission framework.

Schools, colleges and other learning environments

Developing active citizenship

Active citizenship

We’ve developed a collection of free resources to help people think critically and play an active role in Welsh democracy.

Housing and decarbonisation

In 2025, we worked with Tai Pawb to uncover how decarbonisation technology is affecting tenants in Wales.

Get Ahead with Volunteering

We’ve teamed up with Wales’ third sector to develop an eight-week training programme for volunteers.

Social enterprise, business skills and employability