The scholarship of university-community engagement: Interrogating Boyer's model (original) (raw)
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Institutional Commitment to Community Engagement - A Case Study of Makerere University
Although the earliest medieval universities began as teaching-only institutions, the university as an institution has since experienced revolutions in the way its functions are conceived. Currently, the university embraces three functions: teaching, research and community engagement. Although the teaching and research functions of the university are much more established than its third function, the importance of community engagement is acknowledged in the academic literature and, to varying degrees, by governments, higher education agencies and universities. For example, a review of the mission statements of Ugandan universities shows that, besides teaching and research, the universities aspire to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of society. Unfortunately, such assertions reveal little about the actual commitment of the universities to community engagement because there is a dearth of literature about community engagement at African universities. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional commitment of Ugandan universities to community engagement. However, the discussion will focus on a single university, Makerere University. Data was generated through document reviews and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The review shows that the university (1) recognises community engagement as one of its core functions; (2) has integrated some aspects of community engagement into its curriculum and policies; and (3) has organisational structures and personnel to organise and provide community related activities and services. Nonetheless, community related activities remain largely unsupported and the contributions of the faculty to community engagement are insufficiently rewarded.
Institutionalization of Community Engagement at African universities
Since the establishment of the first university in Europe in the 11th century, the mission of the university has expanded from teaching to teaching, research, and service to, and engagement with, external communities. Although African universities are no exceptions to this mission, their community engagement function has not been fully developed and researched. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to analyze, and offer suggestions regarding, institutionalization of community engagement at African universities.
South African journal of higher education, 2024
In the historical higher education (HE) context of early post-independence Africa, little was done to unpack or critique the dominant notion of African universities as "developmental" and to create workable models for the future. The resultant conflictual role of African universities, caught between the demands of academic excellence, on the one hand, and local demands of development and regional and communal impact, on the other, have not yet been adequately resolved. Conceptually and organisationally, "engagement", "transfer" and "outreach" activities serve as mechanisms to bridge the divide between the traditional academy and the needs and expectations of societal stakeholders located outside of formal HE structures. This is now often referred to as the third mission (TM) of HE, the first and second missions being teaching and research. In recent years, many of the existing DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) African Centres of Excellence (ACE) have established partnerships and networks with actors from the political, social and economic sector to increase their relevance and impact in their regions, especially relating to Sustainable Development Goals. Against this backdrop, a qualitative exploratory study was conducted to determine the experiences and perceptions of participating representatives from ten ACE, located in their different and specific regional and societal contexts, about their university-society community engagement (CE) or TM activities. This article reports on the findings of this study, which contributes to the larger aims of identifying long-term synergies and collaboration potential and the development of conceptual models that are scalable. The findings of this study can form an adaptable basis for future TM-CE projects and for possible future research projects about such activities in HE.
The Community-Engaged University: The Case of Universities in Ethiopia
International Journal of Business Anthropology
Throughout the world, higher education institutions are facing the challenge of engaging more closely with their surrounding communities, thereby developing an intellectual foundation for such engagement and integrating the key aspects of the university's mission: teaching, research and community service. This study tracks the development of the concept of community engagement in Ethiopian higher education. We will focus on the current state and required characteristics for community engaged universities in the Ethiopian context. In doing so, we will try to develop and strengthen an understanding of how Ethiopian universities work with their local communities. The article includes one Ethiopian university as case study to illustrate the processes and outcomes of embedding community engagement in Ethiopian higher education.
Linking Academia and Community: Evidence from Student-Community Engagement in Ghana
Ghana Journal of Development Studies, 2017
Academic institutions have come under criticism for not living up to their research expectations. In response, the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Ghana runs a student-community engagement programme termed the Third Trimester Field Practical Programme (TTFPP), where students stay in and research with rural communities on development issues as part of their academic work. This paper analyses communities and students' assessment of the TTFPP in relation to its core objectives. Data were obtained from 35 communities and 315 students during the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 TTFPP sessions in the Upper West Region, using key informant interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation. The study established that the TTFPP is beneficial to communities and students and has the potential of being an effective vehicle for academia-community linkage. However, the preliminary field preparation prior to the student-community engagement was unsatisfactory and a weakness on the engagement. Nonetheless, communities are willing to host and work with students. Therefore, this paper argues that while this student-community engagement is justified, more needs to be done to ensure effective and efficient academia-community linkage. There is more to academiacommunity engagement than sending students out to field. This paper calls for a re-examination of the structure and content of the TTFPP.
IV.2. University-Community Engagement in Africa
2014
IV.2 KNOWLEDGE, ENGAGEMENT AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA * Africa's wide diversity of culture, language, socioeconomic conditions, climate, politics and history is reflected in the diversity found in its multiple community-university engagement (CUE) approaches. African scholarship has an ancient and diverse multiethnic base that has been impacted by the historical forces of slavery and colonialism. Recent shifts from regarding communities as 'beneficiaries' to a view of 'equal collaborative partnership' between communities and universities are beginning to gain momentum and to yield mutually beneficial outcomes. A constructivist framework describing 'scholarly', 'benevolent', 'democratic' and 'professional' discourses is used to describe and illustrate CUE approaches in Africa. Examples are given of national policies and legislative CUE frameworks, and challenges to implementation are discussed. These require 'boundary-spanners' who understand cross-cultural dynamics and have the ability to co-create hybrid cultural spaces where people can collaborate to develop shared visions. The scholarship of CUE brings into focus questions of belonging and identity, which in Africa can manifest as a bricolage of traditional and modern elements of culture. CUE in Africa suggests directions for the transformation of higher education as a social responsibility to citizens and societies both locally and globally. CUE is, however, undertheorized, and more research is required to understand, learn and teach how to mediate the complex relationships that CUE requires. * This chapter is devoted to Sub-Saharan Africa following the UNESCO regional classification.
REIMAGINING UNIVERSITY-COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2023
Keywords: universities, community engagement, political economy, praxis epistemology, academic capitalism, ratings and rankings regimes, EdTech. The Second Higher Education Conference convened jointly by Universities South Africa (USAf) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) provided the space to reflect, collectively and critically on the notion of “The Engaged University”. This article is based on a keynote address to this conference in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the environmental and inequality crises confronting South Africa and the world. After an examination of the societal context of universities, the article discusses critical issues in relation to university-community engagement. It attempts to address these issues by firstly providing an overview of the long-standing debates in our country concerning the academy’s responsibilities and accountability to various constituencies beyond the universities gates and the imperative to rethink scholarship to engage communities meaningfully. Secondly, it will provide an appreciation of the overarching political economy of higher education and the corporatisation of universities before drawing conclusions about the processes that impede or allow the university to be responsive to community engagement. The article will provide a few historical and contemporaneous examples of the work of university-based researchers with various communities. It will highlight the research of those who have an orientation toward working class communities and aim to democratise knowledge production. The article argues that the latter’s “praxis epistemology” (Amini 2017) assists us in reimagining university-community relations.
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2017
University-community engagement is gaining momentum as the latest core business of South African universities in addition to teaching and learning. However, the lack of conceptual and analytic frameworks to assess the progress towards realising university-community engagement will eventually invite criticism that might harm genuine university-community relations. This article uses a systematic literature review approach to develop conceptual and analytic frameworks that are later applied to critically assess the university-community engagement of a leading South African university. Results show that the poor conceptualisation of university-community engagement affects its operationalisation leading to dominant 'weak' as opposed to 'strong' university-community engagement initiatives. Last, the environmental management field offers great opportunities for genuine UCE with community members.
Unraveling University–Community Engagement : A Literature Review
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 2021
University-community engagement has been implemented by an increasing number of universities across the world, in a period characterized by growing international competition. The growing interest in university-community engagement has resulted in a variety of definitions and a high level of complexity as to what the concept means and what it entails. Using a literature review, this paper offers a critical assessment of the academic literature on university-community engagement. The paper aims to provide insight into trends, commonalities and variation in the literature, to enable the identification of an agenda for future research. Four main gaps in the literature are distinguished. The paper calls for a more critical conceptual discussion that should be supported by empirical research. The paper suggests to broaden the theoretical lens, and the use of particular research approaches such as theories of change, in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the concept of universitycommunity engagement.
Heliyon, 2021
Community Engagement (CE) is an accredited path for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to address development challenges facing communities. However, establishing practical CE approaches is difficult due to a lack of information on stakeholders' perceptions and needs for CE. This paper intends to fill this gap by examining engaged stakeholders' perceptions and needs for CE. We conducted a survey among 450 stakeholders, categorised as dairy farmers, students, and faculty members of a case study HEI in Africa. One-way ANOVA findings showed that the three categories perceived CE differently and had multiple needs. To harness reciprocal engagement, HEIs should create more CE opportunities and address stakeholders' needs such as establishing structures, allocating time for engagement elements, financial support, and communication.