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Academic Work and Careers in Europe: Trends, Challenges, Perspectives pp 133–150Cite as

Academics and Community Engagement: Comparative Perspective from Three European Countries

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on academics’ community engagement by focusing on the nature, extent and the evaluation of academics’ community engagement in three European countries – Croatia, Germany and Ireland – and their different social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Differences in contexts can be reflected in differences in the involvement of the university with wider community. A qualitative inquiry was deemed appropriate for the research which was designed to examine the (I) the nature and extent of academics’/participants’ public engagement in the community/society with non-economic stakeholders (other than business and industry) and (II) the status of their community engagement in the frame of institutional commitment to value that kind of activities and academics’ public engagement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lisbon strategy (2000), EU Communication A new partnership for the modernisation of universities: the EU Forum for University Business Dialogue (2009), EU Communication Delivering on the modernisation agenda for universities: education, research and innovation (2006), EU Communication Mobilizing the brainpower of Europe: enabling universities to make their full contribution to the Lisbon Strategy (2005), EU Communication The role of the universities in the Europe of knowledge (2003) OECD reports like Higher Education and Regions: Globally competitive, locally engaged (2007) and Public-private partnerships for research and innovation: an evaluation of the Dutch experience (2004) are only some of the examples.

  2. 2.

    Authors find this notion of community engagement only as one aspect of the entire complex relationship of the university with the community.

  3. 3.

    The order of operations/categories is not random, but it should be noted that it is not related to the quantification of the respondents’ answers or their perception of the importance of certain activities, given that the research questions were not directed towards such analysis. This section first highlights the activities that are associated with the integration of engagement activities into regular academic activities (teaching and research), and then those activities that take place outside the traditional academic framework. This way we tried to further underline the importance of interconnection of academics’ community engagement activities with teaching and research, the very perspective that we support. In fact, a growing body of research systematically suggests the benefits which the integration of academic service-learning model brings to the academic growth and development of students, the development of their social skills, as well as their personal and moral development. The results of the research emphasize the positive changes in students’ critical thinking, their analytical skills, comprehension, and greater commitment to academic work, the perception of greater usefulness of the contents they learn, greater satisfaction with their course and study, and a greater likelihood of staying in the formal education system (Astin et al. 2000; Eyler 2000; Root et al. 2003). Students who participate in such designed community activities, show a positive change in their field of communication skills, are more willing to work with diverse groups of people, show greater confidence in their ability to promptly detect problems in the community, to organize and take the necessary steps for the development of problem solving approaches and stronger civil engagement and dedication to the community (Myers-Lipton 1996; Osborne et al. 1998; Eyler and Giles 1999; Kezar and Rhoads 2001). Engagement in such activities allows students to develop leadership skills, a better understanding of racial and cultural issues, and it strengthens their sense of social responsibility (Howard-Hamilton 2000).

  4. 4.

    Of all the listed activities and events, only few respondents from Croatia pointed out their personal participation at the Science Festival. In other events of this type and featured here, academics, i.e. respondents from Germany engage dominantly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Education, University of Rijeka, Sveučilišna avenija 4, Rijeka, 51000, Croatia

    Bojana Ćulum, Marko Turk & Jasminka Ledić

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  1. Bojana Ćulum
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  2. Marko Turk
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  3. Jasminka Ledić
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Correspondence to Bojana Ćulum .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Tatiana Fumasoli

  2. Observatory Science, Politics and Society, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Gaële Goastellec

  3. Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Barbara M. Kehm

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Ćulum, B., Turk, M., Ledić, J. (2015). Academics and Community Engagement: Comparative Perspective from Three European Countries. In: Fumasoli, T., Goastellec, G., Kehm, B. (eds) Academic Work and Careers in Europe: Trends, Challenges, Perspectives. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10720-2_7

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