Dee Corbett

Neighbourhood Engagement Manager, Queen’s University Belfast
Northern Ireland Regional Representative

Experienced Community Outreach Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Skilled in Government, Facility Management (FM), Event Management, and Facilitation. Strong community and social services professional with a BA focused in Professional Development from The University of Dundee.

Dee successfully hosted the UKTGA 2018 Conference at Queen’s University Belfast and continues to develop the role in Community Engagement in Belfast. To enhance the focus on the local area, Queen’s renamed the Community Team to Neighbourhood Team in 2022 to ensure the team’s role and focus was specific to the area around the University in South Belfast and residents and businesses neighbouring the campus and over 300 buildings in the area.

Dee has advocated strongly for improved relationships with the local community in South Belfast, in addition to working to build and enhance relationships with local businesses and all neighbours. He leads a small team of two Neighbourhood Engagement Officers, and an Administration Support Officer he manages the University response to all off-campus complaints and allegations of student misconduct.

Neighbourhood Engagement jointly funds and supports the Students’ Union’s Volunteer & Community Support Officer to build relationships with community stakeholders, enabling identification of ad-hoc projects within the community which could involve student volunteers. Dee works to co-ordinate these in line with the Students’ Union’s Handy Helpers initiative.

Dee represented the University on the Executive Board and as a Director of the Forward South Partnership for 7 years, and is a past Executive Member of the South Belfast Roundtable, a partnership of 85 groups that seeks to break down barriers, tackle racism and promote diversity.

The South Belfast Roundtable past Chair member William Olphert and Board member Stephanie Mitchell (South Belfast Friendship Club Coordinator) approached Queen’s to host and re-establish the group in 2023 as a much needed networking opportunity for established and new groups and communities in the area. The Roundtable is open to representatives from minority ethnic groups, local communities, church, and political leaders, voluntary and community groups, and representatives of statutory bodies. It continues to meet quarterly in Queen’s University in the heart of South Belfast. The focus is simple to meet, listen and share information and support any communities when possible.

Dee’s experience and practice has shown that the greater engagement a student has with the University and their neighbours, the less likely they are to be involved or reported for minor anti-social disturbances. At Queen’s, he has developed a partnership approach with the teaching Colleges and the Belfast Metropolitan College to improve the level of engagement and impact on student behaviour.

He developed the University Alcohol Education Initiative programme in 2013, working with students to help them learn about the impact of excessive alcohol consumption on themselves and others. The workshop offsets sanctions from breaches in conduct for first time offences, and also provides information on extra-curricular activities that will enrich the students’ experience, enhance career prospects and make a difference to the lives of others.