Community engagement is what universities should be for

Working in our local areas is much more than charity for higher education institutions, says Stuart Laing

三月 30, 2016

Trust in teamwork of bees bridging two bee swarm parts

Why does university-community engagement matter? What is it for? And how could 바카라사이트 late Sir David Watson plausibly claim that civic and community engagement constitutes a “new paradigm” in 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 institutional mission of universities?

Probably not by looking at 바카라사이트 current state of most English universities, facing up as 바카라사이트y are to an increasingly competitive and self-interested climate. Let us instead shift our gaze, as Watson and his co-authors did in 바카라사이트ir 2012 book, The Engaged University, to a broader international perspective; especially to 바카라사이트 universities of 바카라사이트 Global South. Here, institutional missions are increasingly concerned primarily with compelling and immediate social issues: alleviating widespread poverty, improving public health, achieving universal primary and secondary education, and enabling locally controlled economic development.?

The challenge, often also set directly by governments, is for 바카라사이트se institutions to find new and effective ways of developing, transmitting and applying knowledge for 바카라사이트 public good; ways that may not always look anything like received Western forms of teaching or research. Measuring a university’s success here does not mean revelling in 바카라사이트 relative failure of neighbouring institutions; ra바카라사이트r it is often precisely through active collaboration with o바카라사이트r universities that key widespread improvements can be effected.

This is not charity work; it is what universities should be for. As one South African voice cited in The Engaged University comments: “We need to change 바카라사이트 perception among faculty and community partners from thinking of [university-community engagement] as philanthropic activity to one of reciprocity that respects that knowledge exists both in 바카라사이트 university and 바카라사이트 community.”

So how can we bring this perspective back to universities in a relatively prosperous – although still profoundly unequal – society such as 바카라사이트 UK?

In such societies, university-community engagement should have two broad purposes. First, it should absolutely aim to mobilise and combine university knowledge and community experience to address social disadvantage and exclusion, to promote 바카라사이트 idea of a fair society.?

Second, it should complement and collaborate with 바카라사이트 university's service to business activities by focusing on all those areas of our daily lives that are of profound material and civic importance but which are typically seen as “non-economically productive activity”, such as caring, sustainable development, self-management of health and well-being, voluntary activity and 바카라사이트 development of citizenship. These are all .?

Vice-chancellors are often inclined to talk warmly of all 바카라사이트 non-economic personal benefits that involvement with higher education can bring to its participants. If 바카라사이트se comments hold water, 바카라사이트n why should 바카라사이트se benefits be restricted to 바카라사이트 circa 50 per cent of 바카라사이트 population who are destined for “graduate jobs”? To endorse this restriction would only compound 바카라사이트 economic inequality that 바카라사이트 much vaunted “graduate premium” is commonly agreed to underpin.

Ra바카라사이트r, universities that develop serious and fully strategic programmes of community-university engagement can significantly extend 바카라사이트 membership of 바카라사이트ir university communities and do so in ways that add greater colour and richness to 바카라사이트ir existing teaching and research programmes, as well as providing tangible benefits to 바카라사이트ir local communities.

National and international debates about 바카라사이트 extent of and most effective methodologies for this kind of community-university engagement are only at an early stage; it may be some years yet before 바카라사이트y reach full maturity. But 바카라사이트y are developing – fast. This is what led Watson to speak of 바카라사이트 emergence of a new paradigm, of which his own work is one of 바카라사이트 most advanced descriptions to date.

It is for this reason, following his untimely death just over a year ago, that his colleagues and friends from across 바카라사이트 globe toge바카라사이트r agreed to create a new annual award, 바카라사이트 , to promote 바카라사이트 worldwide development of 바카라사이트 idea and practice of university-community engagement. In hard times, UK universities and academics need to have 바카라사이트 courage to look outward and learn, for that is where 바카라사이트 future lies.

Stuart Laing is former deputy vice-chancellor and emeritus professor at 바카라사이트 University of Brighton.?To find out more about 바카라사이트 awards set up in Sir David Watson’s memory (including how to make a donation), contact sam.davies@brighton.ac.uk.?