Why universities must step up their efforts as civic institutions

In London, more than 600,000 people earn less than the income needed for a basic standard of living, according to Trust for London research. Paying a real living wage is a vital first step in tackling inequality – but it’s only the beginning.

By drawing on research expertise, student energy, university offices such as widening participation teams and local partnerships, universities can go further: not only tackling low pay but also improving access to opportunity, raising aspirations and building stronger, fairer communities.

Many universities hold living wage employer status. This is important but risks becoming a tick-box exercise. The real opportunity lies in embedding the living wage and other commitments to civic change into the institution’s social mission. At King’s College London, our work with Citizens UK and the Living Wage Foundation has provided powerful lessons on how to do this.

• How to build a bridge from adversity to university
• A community-university partnership is a relationship, not an affair
• Community organising: a case study in parent engagement

Make change a core social mission

At King’s, the living wage has become a shared cause for students, staff and community partners. Members of Empoderando Familias, a group of Latin American parents established with support from our social mobility and widening participation department, worked with students from our Social Change Lab module to press local cultural institutions to accredit as living wage employers.

Their campaign, a series of creative actions alongside negotiations with employers, secured commitments from the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, BFI and Tate Modern. This represents a pay rise of £4,700 per year for full-time workers moving from statutory minimum wage, benefitting hundreds across these iconic institutions.

Tip: Ask how your institution can embed social justice in its core mission, and how this commitment might shape everyday activities such as widening participation or teaching. Also explore how your university can use its convening power to advocate for wider change beyond campus. Could you host local employer round tables, brief policymakers or embed polices such as the living wage in procurement practices?

Harness research and student organising

Students bring energy, skills and a passion for justice. Academics often confront social issues in their research but lack pathways to drive change. Both need meaningful opportunities to apply this in practice.

Student-led society King’s for Change worked with staff, local parents and Citizens UK to organise an “accountability assembly” for the mayor of London in 2024. In response to testimonies about low pay, Sir Sadiq Khan pledged to strengthen support for living wage and living hours, the campaign to “ensure that everyone has the secure working hours they need to thrive” across London.

Research-led modules such as Social Change Lab (BA Social Sciences) and Scripts for Change (BA History) have also enabled academics and students to apply their knowledge in local campaigns. Social sciences student Aditi Banerjee says: “This work has given me the chance to learn how people can come together to create change.”

Tip: Create structured pathways – accredited modules or extracurricular learning – for students to engage in organising. Invest in community partnerships that offer pathways to research impact. Work with, not just for, communities.

Back campaigns with evidence

Campaigns gain momentum when backed by strong evidence. The Policy Institute at King’s partnered with Southwark Council and the Living Wage Foundation to study the impact of living wage accreditation on employees and employers. 

This research is shaping policy conversations on low pay and financial resilience.

Tip: Consider how academics and research institutes can capture the effects of change as a resource for the wider sector.

Build genuine partnerships 

Community organising is about relationships, not transactions. Success depends on trust, listening deeply and ensuring communities are able to take the lead on issues that matter to them. 

Take Gina Rodriguez, a Colombian migrant who came to London more than a decade ago. While studying, Gina worked part-time as a cleaner. Today, she’s a worker leader with Citizens UK on the Making London a Living Wage City campaign steering group, who serves alongside the mayor of London to shape strategy on combatting low pay.

As she explains: “This campaign will allow us to ensure more workers can live with dignity and the wages they deserve.”

Leaders like Gina bring authenticity and authority. As a worker leader who has worked in insecure, low-paid jobs, she bridges the gap between universities, policymakers and communities through lived experience.

Similarly, Empoderando Familias wasn’t designed by the university and “delivered” to the community. Latin American parents worked with Citizens UK, English for Action and King’s staff to identify barriers and co-develop solutions such as Empower ESOL language classes.

As parent leader Doris Chauca says: “My community all the time are invisible. King’s wants my community to be a part of society.”

Tip: Invest in long-term partnerships where communities shape the agenda and universities offer time, space, expertise and funding.

Be persistent

Campaigning for living wage accreditation requires sustained pressure and challenging conversations. Capturing the energy of busy students, academics and communities is demanding. And change can be a slow process. On London’s South Bank, campaigners had been fighting for some major arts organisations to pay the living wage for years.

But persistence pays off. The accreditation of South Bank institutions shows that when universities and communities combine strengths, they can shift entrenched practices.

Tip: Success may take years. Plan to ensure work is sustainable and celebrate small wins to maintain energy and morale.

Journeys like Gina’s and Doris’ illustrate why universities must not only pay the living wage but stand alongside workers and communities in campaigning for change.

Key takeaways 

• Make the living wage and other commitments to justice part of your institutional identity, mission and everyday activity
• Empower students and researchers through structured community organising.
• Use research capacity to evidence and amplify impact.
• Build long-term partnerships where communities lead and universities support.
• Prepare for the long haul – sustainable change takes time.

Farhan Samanani is lecturer in social justice in the School of Education, Communication and Society and Michael Bennett is associate director of social mobility and widening participation, both at King’s College London.