A University as a ground for Academic and intellectual exchange as well as an agent of social change (original) (raw)
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Universities, Society and Development: Setting the scene
Universities, Society and Development: African perspectives of university community engagement in secondary cities, 2022
The conception and scope of the broader society in which the university is located depends on many factors including the mandate, resourcing and capacity, locality, and interests of the university and university-based actors. Moreover, the needs and the pressures universities experience may be understood in the context of the forces of globalisation; the emergence of knowledge economies; the fast advancement and uptake of new digital technologies; and the swings in the global political economy, all of which are greatly affecting the functioning of universities (OECD, 2012). Extending Cloete et al.'s (2002) argument, as much as institutional transformation results from complex interactions between state, universities and society, the specific developmental orientations of universities should be understood as a complex interplay between multiple factors, including national development and sectorspecific policy, the perceptions, capacities and resources of university-based actors, as well as stakeholders and communities external to higher education. '… let us be quite clear; the University… has a very definite role to play in development in this area, and to do this effectively it must be in, and of, the community … The University of East Africa must direct its energies particularly towards the needs of East Africa … it's in this manner that the university will contribute to our development … … In this fight the university must take an active part, outside as well as inside the walls'. (Nyerere, 1963, cited in Walters & Openjuru, 2013:143) 1 2017-Community engagement at Rhodes, a manifestation of Ubuntu (ru.ac.za).
SN Social Science, 2023
One of the traditional missions for universities was community service which was updated to entail community engagement. Community engagement is a component of the internationalization of higher education which aspires to improve service delivery within society. Though universities in Uganda have always engaged with communities, they have always done so disregarding the international dimension of higher education. Simultaneously, contemporary approaches to internationalization are primarily concerned with scholarly debate and discussion of societal challenges. However, merging internationalization with community engagement would better serve local and global communities. This is now more relevant considering global challenges such as COVID-19, terrorism, and climate change. Universities should now work more closely with communities to enrich scholarship, contribute to public good aims, and address the current critical social issues. Therefore, university-community engagement should go beyond institutional and disciplinary boundaries that restrict possibilities for fruitful engagement with local and global communities in today's rapidly changing world. This paper explores the international dimension of community engagement in Uganda's universities. Using a narrative literature review, the paper highlights how to merge internationalization with community engagement without reproducing inequalities but emphasizing fairness and social justice. The paper holds that community engagement should be integrated into the broader internationalization agenda of universities for better service delivery.
The University as a Contemporary Era
SUN PRESS eBooks, 2009
The contemporary university is an institution that is transforming rapidly. In an age of supercomplexity it too must become supercomplex and expand its epistemologies so as to engage with the challenges of a changing world. In this chapter I critically discuss epistemological transformations occurring in the contemporary university as a consequence of both inside-out pressures and outside-in pressures. I examine traces of these shifts in post-apartheid higher education policy in South Africa, and in practices at both a systemic and institutional level. I argue that even though it appears as if transformations that the modern university is undergoing mark the end of the pursuit of universal reason and the ideal of a liberal education, globalisation affords new spaces for reclaiming some lost ground.
University and society: Bibliography
This item should consist of 2 papers listed below The first sub-item (a), (written in Swedish) is not included here but can be retrieved in html-format under the title "University and Society" at the site https://archive.org/details/WorkEnvRefs\_201802 . (a) A list of selected texts on the idea and practice of university: citizens' transdisciplinar intellectual concerns in politics, ethics and theology. (b) An expense international bibliography on the the relation of university and society. It includes Ivanov's works in the area, and criticism of the changes in the university as institution, with emphasis on the historical mission of universities and the influence of politics, economics, commerce, industry, and administrative behavior.
ON RELEVANCE, DECOLONISATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY INTELLECTUALS
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2023
This article examines the role of intellectuals in building and sustaining engaged African universities. These intellectuals have enormous roles in conjuring and nourishing the vision of enhanced, working institutions. As guardians of nationalism and progress, they cannot and should not eschew aspects such as the politics of identity, social consciousness as well as other pertinent philosophies. It would, for example, be inconceivable to contemplate the African institutions' transformation without reflecting on concepts such as decolonisation and Pan-Africanism, and these are scrutinised in the ensuing discussion. The article also explores the dynamic, painstaking roles that intellectuals have to engage in. The topic on relevance and community engagement will always be important as debates on decolonisation continue. Intellectuals inside and outside the academe will always be useful in transforming society and its institutions. Yet, the work of intellectuals and their influence are buoyed by the characteristics that intellectuals possess. Whether one is a denialist, loyalist, knower or planetary intellectual will inform society of their role in mobilising communities and universities for transformation. Furthermore, the article examines the role of all intellectuals rather than those based at higher education institutions only. Oftentimes when society speaks of intellectuals, it is not the subaltern that they refer to-people outside the university who have been dominated by the hegemony displayed in higher education institutions regarding knowledge ownership. Antonio Gramsci postulates that this hegemony encompasses cultural, moral and ideological leadership over the subaltern. The findings in this debate demonstrate that it will be conscientious and selfless intellectuals who will fortify intellectual engagement for transformation of higher education institutions. The conclusions demonstrate that intellectuals have a judicious responsibility in safeguarding stability and meaningful transformation.
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 2021
Mary Taylor Huber (huber@carnegiefoundation. org) is Senior Scholar Emerita at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Senior Scholar with the Bay View Alliance. She has written extensively about changing faculty cultures in U.S. higher education, focusing especially on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Her books include Balancing Acts: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Academic Careers; The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons; and The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered: Institutional Integration and Impact. The University and the Global Knowledge Society, by David John Frank and John W. Meyer. Princeton University Press, 2020. 200 pages. Paperback, $29.95. Also available in hardcover and as an ebook.
The University: An Institution of Co-creation and Social Transformation
Business and Economics Journal, 2017
This study draws on the implementation of the Bologna Declaration and the daily life of universities, to appraise the process’s objectives whilst comparing them to its outcomes. The concepts of European University convergence, global training of students and a more balanced society are objectives that the Bologna Declaration enshrines. Yet, for its implementation, a knowledge-based society calls for a greater plasticity of skills to improve economic and social performance. This study relies upon questionnaires to university students, held in 2008, 2009 and 2015. Evidence unveils a somewhat slim knowledge pertaining to aspects of the Bologna process, which may have negative external economies about the autonomous workload each student should devote to course units, as well as to the hierarchy and management of their tasks. This evidence also unveils thatstudents are sensitive to the five global development processes of the person in line with the multiplicity of Gardner’s intelligenc...