Skip to main content

Civic mission

A young girl with goggles on is helped to use a nurf gun by a Cardiff University volunteer.
An activity at Brain Games uses goggles to simulate what it is like to live with a visual impairment.

We are a university that stands shoulder to shoulder with our communities. It’s what we call our civic mission.

We have been delivering a civic mission to support the health, wealth and wellbeing of the people of Wales for well over a hundred years. We are now building on these foundations to deliver an ambitious and wide-ranging civic mission programme.

We work with schools

Watch a video showcasing some of our school engagement work

We aim to work closely with all schools and colleges across Wales to support young people to achieve their potential.

We provide activities in classrooms to support curriculum themes and offer opportunities to enrich pupils' learning outside the classroom through events at the University and in the community.

We enhance teachers' knowledge and development which supports pupil attainment.

We encourage our staff and students to contribute skills and expertise by serving as governors or volunteering in the classroom.

Take a look at the activities and resources we offer schools, colleges and teachers.

Doing practical workshops with Cardiff University helps our pupils understand how what they’ve learnt in class can be applied in real life situations. It\'s really effective, aside from the long term, it will probably get them more engaged in lessons as well.

Mr Mohamed Science teacher at Fitzalan High School

We believe in potential

Social responsibility is at the heart of everything we do. We are building on the success of our Widening Participation scheme to ensure all students fulfill their potential regardless of their circumstances.

  • 30,596 people engaged with our Widening Participation scheme in 2017/18

Our research has impact

Our experts carry out world class research that has a real impact on people's lives. We are working across disciplines to tackle major challenges facing society, the economy and the environment.

We engage and involve our communities in research activities to ensure we reach out beyond academia.

  • 29,000 people are signed up to our Healthwise Wales research project.

Find out how Healthwise Wales is improving the health of people in Wales.

We engage our communities

We work directly with our communities through community led projects and student and staff volunteering. They play a major role in shaping projects which seek to tackle poverty, boost the economy and improve health, education and wellbeing.

As well as creating projects and partnerships with communities we also welcome the public at many of our events and activities. They can access our facilities, from libraries to our sports facilities, or  take a Continuing and Professional Education course.

Several of our engagement projects work directly with communities in Cardiff, Wales and further afield. Some of these include:

  • CAER Heritage
  • the Centre for Community Journalism
  • Community Gateway
  • the Phoenix Project.

We contribute to the economy

We make a major contribution to the economy: £2.4bn to the Welsh economy and £3.2bn to the UK economy every year.

We were also the first university in Wales to pay the real Living Wage and committed to creating 1,000 high value jobs by 2023.

We are proud to be Welsh

Eisteddfod science

We are proud to be a Welsh university and support Welsh language and culture.

We showcase our research and teaching at the National Eisteddfod every year through talks, discussions and practical activities. We also engage visitors at other Welsh cultural events such as the Urdd Eisteddfod and Tafwyl.

Our Welsh for Adults programme has been running for over 25 years, benefiting Welsh learners in the community as well as our own staff and students.