A new communiqué setting out a range of measures to sustain university engagement with communities has been published following the most recent meeting of the ‘Big Tent’ group of community university engagement networks hosted recently at the University of Glasgow by PASCAL International Observatory.

The communiqué urges universities around the world to respond to important global phenomena, associated with the emerging citizens’ movement, demands for post-secondary education, and for deep societal transformation in many areas of social and economic life to address issues of sustainability, poverty and social justice.

Noting demands for an emerging knowledge democracy, the communiqué sees the university of 2030 including the currently ‘unreached’, promoting social responsibility in all its activities, developing inter-disciplinary networks to tackle deep-seated problems, and acting as centres of thinking and renewal, creating cultural and social capital and active citizenship.

The communiqué urges universities to put in place structures and models to support this increased community engagement.  These would include:

• Developing large-scale collaborative structures for dialogue with community partners as the normal way of universities doing their business;
• Community-based research units, science shops and similar arrangements to facilitate knowledge brokerage and action research engagement;
• All students to have opportunities for experiential learning;
• All staff to be trained in the principles of effective community engaged scholarship; and research funders to support projects with both scientific and social impact and projects with civil society partners.

NOTES TO EDITORS

This statement has been facilitated by the ‘Big Tent’ group of international networks and the in collaboration with: the Asia Pacific University Community Engagement Network, Centro Boliviano de Estudios Multidisciplinarios, The Association of Commonwealth Universities: Extension and Engagement Network, Research, Global, Living Knowledge Network, Participatory Research in Asia, PASCAL International Observatory and the Talloires Network.

For further information: New Delhi: Dr. Rajesh [email protected], Glasgow: Professor Mike Osborne- Mike [email protected] Victoria, BC Canada: Professor Budd Hall- [email protected]