Universities are increasingly expected to play a proactive role in addressing social challenges and fostering community well-being. This paper examines how higher education institutions can engage in meaningful and sustainable collaborations with local communities through university extension initiatives. Drawing on the case of the 'Colaborar UC' project at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, we analyze how the university-community relationship is structured, the mechanisms of knowledge co-construction, and the impact of these engagements on local organizations and students.

Colaborar UC was initiated in 2018 to foster long-term partnerships with La Legua, a historically significant yet marginalized neighborhood in San Joaquín, Santiago, Chile. Known for its political activism and cultural legacy, La Legua now faces high poverty, narcotraffic activity, and school drop-out rates. The project, based on territorial co-responsibility, shifts from isolated interventions to sustained, systemic collaborations, aligning service-learning, research, and student leadership initiatives with local priorities to enhance community resilience and curricular transformation.

This study is framed within debates on university social responsibility (USR) (Vallaeys & Álvarez, 2019) and research-practice partnerships (Farrell et al., 2022). It interrogates the tensions between authentic collaboration and the instrumentalization of engagement under contemporary governance frameworks, particularly in relation to quality assurance mechanisms and accreditation policies (Cano Menoni & Flores, 2023; Irarrázaval, 2020). The Latin American tradition of university extension provides a critical lens to examine how community engagement can resist extractivist logics while foregrounding ethical, situated, and participatory methodologies (Godonoga & Sporn, 2023; Vasilescu et al., 2010).

Although universities have been positioned as knowledge producers, their mediating and social role remains central to ongoing debates within higher education’s shifting borders (Shumar et al., 2024). In both the Bildung tradition and the Humboldtian university model, as well as Freirean concept of conscientização, universities have been sites of situated engagement, where knowledge is not merely produced but emerges through unpredictable encounters and shared concerns (Cano Menoni & Flores, 2023). The Latin American tradition of university extension has been instrumental in shaping global frameworks for university-community collaboration. However, these are conditioned by research methodologies, curricular structures, governance frameworks, and policy agendas, often reinforcing tensions between institutional imperatives and the pedagogical implications of imagining alternative futures (Martínez-Usarralde et al., 2019; Vallaeys, 2008).

We highlight the stakes of such engagements, particularly the structural challenges of sustaining meaningful collaboration beyond short-term interventions. The labor-intensive nature of engagement, the interpersonal relationships required for continuity, and the tension between micro-level efforts (individual courses) and institutional commitment are central to understanding the pedagogical dimensions of university-community relationships (Higgins et al., 2023; Vasilescu et al., 2010). We analyze how universities navigate the borders of higher education, addressing the conditions under which they foster or limit ethical and transformative collaboration (Larrán & Andrades, 2017).

We critically examine authentic collaboration, where university-community partnerships are designed to be mutually transformative, fostering co-creative processes that go beyond extractive knowledge transfer (Coelho & Menezes, 2021). Universities act as brokers, enabling boundary-crossing experiences that integrate community-based knowledge with academic expertise, challenging traditional knowledge production. A key contribution of this study is its focus on sustained collaboration with a neighboring territory, demonstrating how moving beyond one-off course-based engagements can lead to long-term, systemic impact (Fauré Polloni & González Fuentes, 2018).

Yet, these engagements operate within a higher education governance landscape where they are often instrumentalized through quality assurance frameworks that prioritize measurable outputs over transformative collaboration (Dougnac & Flores, 2021). By foregrounding experiences from the Global South, this study examines how institutional mechanisms shape engagement and explores alternative, ethical, and situated approaches that resist extractivist logics while emphasizing relationship-building, shared governance, and long-term commitment (Castañeda Meneses et al., 2021; UNESCO, 2022).

This study employs a qualitative research design to examine the dynamics of university-community collaboration through the case of Colaborar UC. The methodology is informed by program evaluation (Patton, 2014) and Research Practice Partnerships (Ferrell et al., 2022; Cooper et al., 2020), centering on situated engagement and the co-construction of knowledge with diverse stakeholders. The study seeks to critically assess how universities navigate institutional constraints, pedagogical imperatives, and ethical considerations in fostering authentic collaboration with local communities. The research incorporates semi-structured interviews with academic staff, students, and community partners to explore their experiences, expectations, and challenges in long-term engagement. To date, 23 interviews have been conducted with 26 participants, primarily from territorial organizations and faculty members. Additional interviews will be conducted with students from all four academic units in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Participants were selected based on intentional sampling (Flick, 2007; Patton, 2015), ensuring the inclusion of key actors with direct experience in Colaborar UC. The study also identifies critical stakeholders in the community based on the length of partnerships, allowing for a comparative analysis of perspectives from longstanding and newer collaborators. To complement individual narratives, the study integrates participatory methodologies, implemented in 2023, 2024, and planned for January 2025. These collective instances serve as spaces for evaluation, strategic direction-setting, and shared reflection. Through these sessions, participants collaboratively define challenges, assess project outcomes, and set new directions, reinforcing the co-construction and co-responsibility principles underpinning research-practice partnerships (RPPs). These participatory methodologies also serve to validate and triangulate the data obtained from interviews, ensuring methodological rigor (Arce - Trigatti et al., 2023; Ferrell et al., 2022). Additionally, document analysis of institutional policies, course syllabi, and strategic plans related to university extension and community engagement provides further context for understanding the governance structures shaping Colaborar UC. Data analysis follows an iterative coding process, using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021) to identify emerging patterns related to boundary-crossing practices, pedagogical implications, and the tension between institutional imperatives and ethical collaboration. This methodological approach provides a context-sensitive, in-depth understanding of how sustainable engagement can be cultivated beyond extractivist models of university outreach.

The findings highlight the complexity of university-community collaboration, emphasizing the need for sustained engagement, mutual trust, and institutional commitment. Colaborar UC has functioned as a boundary-crossing initiative, fostering long-term reciprocal relationships between the university and community organizations in San Joaquín and La Legua. This experience offers insights into how higher education institutions navigate their evolving societal roles, balancing community engagement with institutional constraints. A key finding is the importance of interpersonal relationships in fostering meaningful engagement. Project coordinators as brokers play a crucial role in sustaining collaboration and mitigating disruptions caused by faculty and student turnover. In this process, higher education practitioners emerge as key mediators, negotiating between institutional expectations and community needs. However, institutionalizing engagement remains a challenge, as governance frameworks often prioritize impact metrics over long-term relational processes. This dynamic reflects a broader tension within universities, where third-mission activities risk being subsumed under managerial logics of accountability and efficiency. The study also reveals tensions between institutional and community expectations. While community organizations seek sustained collaboration and practical contributions, universities operate within time-constrained academic cycles, which may limit continuity and relational depth. Research on academic temporality and rhythm offers useful insights into how engagement work is structured within universities and how it could be better integrated into academic careers and pedagogical practices. Finally, Colaborar UC contributes to the local and international (re)thinking the role of universities in public engagement, shifting from a knowledge dissemination model to a reciprocal, co-creative process. In the current climate of institutional distrust, this repositioning is crucial in reinforcing universities’ social embeddedness and situated practice. However, challenges remain in resisting extractivist tendencies and ensuring that engagement efforts are mutually transformative rather than transactional. These findings suggest new ways forward for university-community partnerships, bridging institutional structures and long-term commitments to societal change.

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