‘Luring the academic soul’: promoting academic engagement in South African universities

Kruss, Glenda; Haupt, G.; Visser, Margreet

doi:10.1080/07294360.2015.1137874

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…O'Meara and Rice (2005) extended this notion stating that engagement necessitates moving beyond "the expert model that often gets in the way of constructive university community collaboration (and)…calls on faculty to move beyond "outreach"," ….asks scholars to go beyond "service". Similarly, writers have argued about the importance of both academic and local knowledge and ways to shift the lens from traditional knowledge creation and dissemination from the expert academy (Strier, 2010;Kruss, Haupt & Visser, 2016). A related form of scholarship has also emerged viz.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a conceptual understanding of community engagement in higher education in South Africa

Bhagwan

2017

PiE

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a conceptual understanding of community engagement in higher education in South Africa

Bhagwan

2017

PiE

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“…Starting with "Solidaridad" in Latin America (Rabin 2014), and service-learning or volunteerism or engaged scholarship in South Africa (Kruss et al 2012), these concepts all relate to the involvement of the university with its external communities the argument this article seeks to make lies along Brink's (2021) conviction that we need to go beyond engagement, to sustainable place-based development.…”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Universities as anchor institutions in place-based development: Implications for South African universities engagement

Fongwa

2021

SAJHE

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The concept of anchor institutions has emerged as a more integrated way in which universities are engaging with their communities towards achieving social and economic transformation of the city regions as well as the university itself. Starting in the United States, the anchor institution concept has widely gained currency, especially for universities in historically disadvantaged or socio-economically declining communities. Exacerbated by Covid-19, many universities are reviewing their place-based mandates within a period where communities are facing huge and increasing socio-economic demise. This article teases out the core components of an anchor university to argue for a more active hands-on and outcome-oriented approach to universitycommunity engagement for South African universities. The article identifies facets for anchoring including economic transformation, infrastructural development, and sociocultural transformation.Four active functions for universities are proposed within their immediate communities. These include a core institutional role, an economic role, an infrastructure development role, and a public good role. The last section provides a reflection on possible pathways for South African universities to adopt an anchoring posture and mandate.

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“…Therefore, unlike teaching and learning, or research and innovation, which have well established and clearly defined measures of performance and outputs, community engagement lags behind in this regard. This makes community engagement less attractive to academics and researchers relative to teaching and conventional research (Van Schalkwyk 2014, 1; Kruss et al 2012). All these factors contribute to stepchild status of community engagement in universities in South Africa.…”

Section: The "Stepchild" Syndromementioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections on the conceptualisation and practices of community engagement as a core function of universities

Saidi¹

2021

SAJHE

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The world saw the "human" side of universities during the Covid-19 pandemic as universities across the globe were at the forefront of efforts to control the spread of the Coronavirus, and to explore means of making the human population acquire immunity against the virulent disease. This article contends that, although this appeared as unusual, the universities were simply fulfilling their obligation to humanity because the raison d'être of universities includes being of service to society. Therefore, if they are unable to prevent crises from setting in, they should at least be at the forefront of efforts to combat the crises, and mitigate their effects on people. The article seeks to set the scene for the collection of articles that follow in this special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE) on the theme of community engagement as a core function for universities. It argues that universities have social responsibility, and they should therefore serve as anchors of towns and regions; as engines of development in their respective geographical areas; and as champions of social causes. It presents and discusses the concepts and practices of community engagement that are critical to understanding the arguments and counterarguments in the articles that follow. These include the relationship between community engagement, on the one hand, and transformation of higher education as well as decolonisation of knowledge and ways of knowing, on the other. The article also reflects on the state of community engagement in universities in South Africa, and explains that it is mostly regarded as a stepchild because it is not valued, funded or supported in the same way as the other two core functions of teaching and learning, and research and innovation. The article also cautions against the use of rhetoric to romanticise community engagement when the projects on the ground leave much to be desired, and with not potential to make a difference to society.

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‘Luring the academic soul’: promoting academic engagement in South African universities

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Towards a conceptual understanding of community engagement in higher education in South Africa

Towards a conceptual understanding of community engagement in higher education in South Africa

Universities as anchor institutions in place-based development: Implications for South African universities engagement

Reflections on the conceptualisation and practices of community engagement as a core function of universities

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