{"id":61,"date":"2026-07-24T10:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/uwca\/?page_id=61"},"modified":"2026-07-28T10:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:03:17","slug":"faq","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/uwca\/faq\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
What is the University of Westminster Climate Assembly (UWCA)?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The UWCA is the first climate assembly to be run in a UK university. The assembly involved 42 students, academics, professional services and contractors selected by democratic lottery to reflect the full diversity of our university community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its remit asked members to deliberate on \u201cHow can the university and its community take forward meaningful action on climate change?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivered over six sessions (four Wednesday afternoons and two Saturdays) between January and March 2026, members came together to learn about Westminster’s emissions profile, the challenges of adaptation, and the role of teaching, research, professional development as well as campus culture in enabling climate action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They heard from 26 internal and external witnesses, visited all of our campuses, and produced 51 recommendations<\/a> across three themes: Emissions from ICT and AI; Teaching and Professional Development; and Community and Culture. Of those 51 recommendations, 44 were supported by 80% or more of assembly members \u2014 a remarkable degree of informed consensus.
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Who organised the UWCA?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The UWCA was organised by three academics: Ro Spankie<\/a> (Architecture+Cities), Graham Smith<\/a> (Social Sciences) and Yasmin Kulasi<\/a> (Westminster Business School)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The design and delivery of the UWCA was led by Sarah Allan<\/a>, a deliberative engagement specialist. She worked with Anwin Alias<\/a> to provide support and guidance to members before the assembly began its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How were members selected?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

Assembly members were selected by democratic lottery – so that the UWCA looked like the wider university community and it was not just the most climate committed and engaged who took part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of the assembly members were students. The other half were academics, professional service colleagues and contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first step, invitations were sent out to all members of the university community. Students were contacted through Blackboard (our learning platform). Academics and professional services received an email invitation. Contractors (caterers, cleaners, security) were handed letters. Those who were interested in participating registered their details and some background information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second step, 42 assembly members were randomly selected using stratified sampling to ensure that the final assembly resembled the wider university population in terms of gender, ethnicity, disability, attitude towards climate change, college (academics and students), directorate (professional services), year of study (students), level of seniority (academics and professional services).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recruitment was supported by the Sortition Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Were assembly members paid?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The UWCA was a big time commitment for assembly members – 28 hours in total. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To encourage a broad spectrum of applicants to participate and in recognition of the time commitment, we were able to pay students, part-time visiting lecturers and contractors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not possible to pay full-time academics and professional service colleagues. This had a noticeable effect on applications to be assembly members – we had a much smaller pool of full-time colleagues from which to select assembly members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the university runs assemblies in the future, it will be important to ensure that full-time colleagues are given time to participate as part of their expected workload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What happened in the UWCA sessions?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The six sessions varied depending on whether the assembly was learning about the different impacts of the university, deliberating on what could be done, or writing recommendations. Our dedicated Substack<\/a> followed the assembly process and includes wonderful photos of the assembly in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who funded the UWCA?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

The UWCA was funded by grant from the Quintin Hogg Trust<\/a> (QHT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evaluation of the assembly was supported by the Students-as-Researchers initiative, also funded by QHT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who else participated in the UWCA?<\/strong><\/summary>\n

We estimate that around 200 people engaged directly with the work of the UWCA as facilitators, witnesses, logistics, communications, evaluation and research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

22 of the assembly members were students, but student involvement went far beyond this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were committed from the outset to integrating students as genuine partners in the design, delivery and evaluation of the assembly. Funding from the Quintin Hogg Trust meant that we were able to pay all of these student participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n