GLOBAL: Civic engagement is not an add-on

More and more universities around the world are actively engaging with their communities and this is generating big benefits, not least for the universities involved.

This is one of the main messages of the 2011 Talloires Network Leaders Conference: Building the engaged university held last week at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain.

Public service activities "act as an amplifier for all of our scholarship and teaching and in the process they make us better universities," said Lawrence Bacow, chair of the Talloires Network steering committee at the opening ceremony. "Public service is not a marginal activity, it is an essential way that our faculty and students can do their job."

As one proof of this, Bacow pointed to the growth of the Talloires Network itself, a network of universities committed to promoting civic engagement and social responsibility in higher education, which has grown from 29 founder members in 2005 to a total membership of 220 universities from 60 countries today.

"What began as a small meeting has gone on to become a movement," said Brenda Gourley, ex-president of the UK's Open University and a member of the Talloires steering committee. University leaders, lecturers and students will spend the next two days discussing how to boost civic engagement in higher education.

Host institution the UAM took advantage of the occasion to announce the launch of a new initiative to promote student volunteer exchanges between universities of the South. Students from five universities each from Latin America, Asia and Africa will be given the chance to carry out six-month placements working as volunteers on another university's community programmes abroad. This could mean a Peruvian student going to work on a programme run by a Colombian university for resettling families fleeing from violence in rural areas for instance.

"The idea is that we want to avoid creating dependency on the North and to highlight the value of the civic work that Southern universities are doing," said Silvia Arias, director of UAM's unit for solidarity and co-operation. The UAM will manage the initiative which is open to members of the Talloires Network; grants for participating students will be provided by the Banco Santander.

Comment:
How interesting that the Tailloires Group can find such community value in a university presence in any town, while at the same time the Grattan Institute finds that in Australia it is a waste of money in rural communities.

(Daley J and Lancy A 2011).

Giles Pickford