Europe Engage – Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement through Service-Learning within Higher Education in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Europe Engage – Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement through Service-Learning within Higher Education in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The ‘Europe Engage’ Project seeks to embed the concept and practice of the civic university through Service-Learning (S-L) and student engagement with community. The overall aim of ‘Europe Engage’ will be to promote Service-Learning as a pedagogical approach that embeds and develops civic engagement within higher education, students, staff and the wider community.

While in the latter half of the twentieth century universities are characterized by more economic than civic approaches, in this first part of the twenty-first century it is necessary to give protoganism to the third mission of the University: its social responsibility. Universities can and should train future professionals through experiential learning practices that respond to its social commitment by contributing to solve community problems and reach sustainable development goals. This practice results in significant benefits for the student, the academic, the university, the community, and the country.

‘Europe Engage’ seeks to embed the idea of ​​the civic university through service-learning as a pedagogical approach within the participating universities, which enables students and universities to connect with society in order to maintain and develop democracy and healthy levels of social capital within the European context. Service-learning is a key approach in terms of incorporating a culture of civic and political literacy among the student population into higher education.

“Service-Learning (sometimes referred to as community based or community engaged learn- ing) is an innovative pedagogical approach that integrates meaningful community service or en- gagement into the curriculum and offers students academic credit for the learning that derives from active engagement within community and work on a real world problem. Reflection and experiential learning strategies underpin the process and the service is linked to the academic discipline” (McIlrath et al., 2016, p. 5).

Europe Engage is a three-year project involving twelve institutions of higher education with experience and interest in this methodology. The project includes activities of mapping, training, dissemination, support to institutionalization and the creation of national networks of S-L. The following are the main activities and results of the project:

• Mapping and Evaluating Learning-Service as a Pedagogical Approach in the universities and partner countries of the project. Results: Two online survey tools, Europe Engage Allocation Report, and a definition of S-L in Europe.

• Project website. Results: public web page that articulates S-L from a European perspective.

• S-L experiences, which allow the identification of good practices in each participating country and the exchange of experiences. Results: Repository of S-L experiences in Europe, and definition of quality standards for European S-L experiences.

• Database of S-L trainers in the participating countries. On-line document that includes a list of trainers, publications, doctoral theses and other S-L resources.

• Training and dissemination of the methodology. Each participating university organizes a dissemination activity to share best practices in the local, regional and / or national context. It includes a training session in three participating institutions to publicize the work of existing national networks and promote their creation. Results: 12 regional and national dissemination events from Europe Engage to disseminate project results and develop the thrust and understanding of S-L in the European context.

• International project meetings: Six transnational meetings and a transnational meeting of students were organized, allowing one student from each participating university to have an international S-L experience. Results: Development of sound project management and intercultural relations between members of the Europe Engage project, the Advisory Committee and support staff.

• Implementation of Learning-Service in each university associated to the project, including common elements designed during the process. For example: use of an on-line platform and application of common evaluation tools.

• Support to the institutionalization of S-L, through seminars developed in three participating universities in which S-L was an unknown methodology.

The objectives of the project have not only been achieved, but have been overcome, since activities not foreseen in the project have been carried out and have had a significant impact at the national and international level. From this point on, new projects and initiatives are expected to help transform universities into entities committed to society, social justice and sustainable development.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 340002,93 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID & Country: ES

Project Partners

• ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
• UNIVERSITEIT GENT
• ISPA CRL
• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
• UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
• SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET
• VYTAUTO DIDZIOJO UNIVERSITETAS