Session Information
15 SES 01, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
The engagement of universities with wider society is increasingly a focus of higher education policy in Europe in many jurisdictions, and has been named as a priority area in the Irish National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. University engagement can be interpreted variedly as entrepreneurial and economic engagement, with a focus on enterprise and knowledge transfer, or as social and civic engagement with a concern for democratic responsibility and for the communities in which an institution is located and working .
One manifestation of engagement is an increase in the number and variety of university community partnerships, as universities work with different neighbourhood groups, non-governmental organisations, and civic organisations to share knowledge and address social issues. The nature of these collaborations can be fruitful for the community, university and for students and other participants. However, there are challenges in working across organisations with widely different structures, resources, cultures and expectations.
Drawing on the findings of a doctoral thesis ‘The Civic Role of Universities: General Concepts and Irish Practices’, this paper looks at some of the issues emerging in university community partnerships. The paper is also informed by the experiences of the author in developing and co-ordinating partnerships between a university adult education centre and a number of cultural institutions, and from work with Campus Engage, a national network to promote university civic and community engagement.
University community partnerships can have many forms and functions, and what works for one partnership may not work elsewhere. This paper discusses issues which emerge around collaboration, resources, and capacity.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
CAMPUS ENGAGE (2014) About Campus Engage. http://www.campusengage.ie/site/view/27/. CARNEGIE FOUNDATION (2014) Carnegie Classification on Civic Engagement. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/index.asp?key=1592 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS (2011) National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. Dublin, Department of Education and Skills. HIGHER EDUCATION AUTHORITY (2013) Towards a Performance evaluation framework: Profiling Irish higher education. Dublin, Higher Education Authority. MCILRATH, L., LYONS, A. & MUNCK, R. (Eds.) (2012) Higher Education and Civic Engagement: Comparative Perspectives. New York, palgrave macmillan. NATIONAL CO-ORDINATING CENTRE FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT (2014) What is Public Engagement? http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/what. WATSON, D., HOLLISTER, R. M., STROUD, S. E. & BABCOCK, E. (2011) The Engaged University: International Perspectives on Civic Engagement. New York, Routledge.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.