In Siliguri (West Bengal), Chandigarh (Punjab) and Delhi during the period 3-7 March 2014, PASCAL Director Mike Osborne was very pleased to be part of three events concerned with strengthening community engagement in HE in India. These events at the University of North Bengal, the Indian Government's Planning Commission in Delhi and at Panjab University were organised by the British Council, Panjab University, ICSSR, North Bengal University and the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education.

A panel discusion at the University of North Bengal in Siliguri

A concept note for the event was prepared by Rajesh Tandon,  UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education as follows:

As public institutions, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwide are being challenged to demonstrate their societal relevance through their core functions of teaching and research. With rapid growth in enrolments in post-secondary education, the issues related to social relevance of curriculum, inclusion of indigenous knowledge, access to hitherto excluded students and direct contribution to solve problems in their communities have gained ascendancy in India.

The new 12th Five Year Plan has, for the first time, included an action agenda in this respect:

In the face of growing isolation of HEIs from society, there is a need for renewed effort by them for genuinely engaging with community, conducting socially relevant research and education and fostering social responsibility amongst students, as part of their core mission. For this purpose, the British Council and UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education have initiated a project to strengthen and support community engagement in Higher Education in Punjab and West Bengal. An Alliance for Community Engagement, an independent association of practitioners, academics and community leaders would be created to support its implementation.

In the light of the above, the British Council and UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education will work in partnership with the State Government and a key academic institution or a consortium of academic institutions to:

• Undertake a study in Punjab and West Bengal  to map and research current innovative practices in community engagement in HEIs,  and
• Organise State level dialogue engaging civil society, academia and policy-makers in Punjab and West Bengal to build shared understanding of and common actions to strengthen community engagement in HEIs and explore ways in which the engagement can enhance teaching (learning and education) and research (knowledge production, mobilization and dissemination) thereby realizing the above initiative of the 12^th Plan.

During the India Launch of UNESCO Chair on Community-based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education in Jamia Millia Islamia on December 10, 2012, the Member of the Planning Commission, Dr. Narendra Jadhav asked the UNESCO Chair to take the initiative for this in the country.

Therefore, as part of the Education dialogue series British Council and UNESCO Chair partnered to take the above agenda forward in Siliguri on 3-4 March, Delhi 5 March and Chandigarh 6 - 7 March, 2014.

Objectives:

1. To assess the current levels and quality of community engagement by HEIs in the State;
2. To analyse best practices and meanings of social responsibility as practiced in the State;
3. To learn from innovative policies and practices in the UK in the broad field of public engagement and social responsibility and
4. To identify strategies to scale-up community engagement in the light of the new policy in the 12^th Five Year Plan

Alongside Professor Osborne other UK resources persons were as follows:

• Dr Emma McKenna, Education and Skills Development, Queen's University, Belfast
• Dr Jenni Chambers, Senior Policy Manager - RCUK Public Engagement with Research Council, UK.

All of the events secured considerable attention from academics, students, policy-makers and the media with in total over 300 people attending. A full report will be available shortly.