Create - Challenge - Change

Conference Aims

The aims of the Campus Engage conference are:

To provide a forum to discuss the rationale and implications of civic engagement partnerships in the context of higher education.
To explore international civic engagement partnership models and share knowledge of sustainable civic engagement partnership practices.
To explore practical issues related to community based learning, volunteering, scholarship of engagement and the sustainability of civic engagement partnerships.
To examine the effectiveness of civic engagement partnerships in developing a culture of engagement.
To assess the role of civic engagement partnerships in influencing policy change at local, regional, national and international levels.

Conference Themes

Theme 1: Philosophy

Conceptions of the role of higher education within civil society and theories of civic engagement.

The role that institutions of higher education play in the development of civic engagement at student, community and societal levels.

Theme 2: Practice

The opportunities and barriers facing higher education and community when embedding service learning/community based learning, volunteering, scholarship of engagement. The task of mainstreaming civic engagement activities.

Creating and developing pedagogies for civic engagement – methods and models.

The challenge of reciprocal learning and the co-creation of knowledge – case-studies from students, community and academics.

Theme 3: Policy

Creating policy change at local, national and international levels to support the development of civic engagement and higher education.

Case-studies of collaborative relationships between agents of social change at a policy level and those within higher education.

Theme 4: Partnership

Ethical implications of higher education and community partnerships and dynamics of power.

Perspective on the ‘push and pull’ of partnership - higher education as a community resource and community as a higher education resource.

The challenges involved in creating sustainable civic engagement partnerships and ways of addressing these challenges.