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On 15 and 16 September, Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ organised a two-day conference on the place of socially engaged education at universities. Dutch universities each delegated one or two forerunners to discuss this in depth with each other. What did it yield?

No selfie culture

Collaboration between students, lecturers and societal partners is at the heart of the conference. This is also called Community Engaged Learning or Service Learning, although different terms are used by the universities. In any case, participants agree that reciprocity is central to this collaboration. It is about creating added value for everyone involved. Dialogue and learning together about social issues contribute to this. 'The opposite of a selfie culture'.

Learning to deal with messiness

How are students shaped by this educational experience? Participants indicate that students learn from the different perspectives and are encouraged to reflect on their own thinking. 'The university bubble that students are in breaks down.' This can also be experienced as a messy and uncertain process, but precisely this contains necessary learning experience.

Teaching enthusiasm

Added value for teachers is also one of the topics at the conference. They can get their motivation from contributing to a societal issue or the learning experience for students. But it also provides something for themselves, such as a larger network. The problem, as mentioned more often in educational innovation, is that time and recognition are scarce. 'There is often talk of teaching burden'. With the right support, this can potentially be transformed into 'teaching enthusiasm'.

The myth of the neutral university

A recurring topic during the conference is the role of the university in society. If the university no longer wants to be a the ivory tower, with whom does it cooperate and on what issues? Colleagues from the argued that such choices mean that as a university you cannot be neutral. KU Leuven, for instance, chooses to focus on individuals and groups in vulnerable situations.

The start of a learning network

Participants experienced the conversations during the conference as a ‘feast of recognition’. But what's next? The conference could be the start of a national network, in which participants can learn from each other on different themes. By continuing to talk to each other you can prevent everyone to reinvent the same concepts and avoid a feeling of competition between universities. In any case, this conference shows that social engagement is high on the agenda at universities and that - if it is up to the pioneers - it will be an integral part of academic education in a few years' time.

Want to know more?

Contact James Kennedy, Dean Community Engaged Learning, and Kim Zunderdorp, programme manager Community Engaged Learning.