Community Engagement

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Community Engagement is defined as:
"initiatives and processes through which the expertise of the institution in the areas of teaching and research are applied to address issues relevant to its community." (Council on Higher Education)

To this definition we can add that community engagement is a two way process of learning because staff and students of the institution are continuously learning as they interact with the external community. Dissemination, generation and reconstruction of knowledge are practical outcomes of community engagement.

The definition of CE can be categorised into 2 sections, which are social and academic CE:

• Social CE refers to the work that students initiate in societies and residences as student volunteers and also the involvement of students as volunteers placed with community partner organisations

• Academic CE refers to the community projects which are distinctive to the scholarly work of universities. This involves the application of academic teaching and research to the benefit of communities in a mutual interchange for the good of all involved. An example of this would be service learning that Pharmacy students do as well as penultimate law students in the Legal Aid clinic.

A critical question that encompasses the debate on CE is: “who is the community?”

• There is the perception that white people live atomistic and layered lives in suburbs whilst black people live in uniform “communities” represented in urban areas by “leaders” and in rural areas by “chiefs, headmen or traditional leaders”.

• One should also not assume that working with “the community” means working with formerly disadvantaged people only. Amongst the many communities that higher education institutions serve are industry and government.

• One of the issues being debated at Rhodes at the moment as it works towards a more rigorous conceptualisation of community engagement is the geographical nature of its community. Some would argue for a focus on the needs of the immediate locality – others would include the Eastern Cape Province, still others, the African continent. Is the international community one of Rhodes’ communities of engagement?