Conference Agenda

Institutionalising service-learning in higher education is widely recognised as a complex, multi-dimensional process that requires alignment across mission, curriculum, and institutional structures (Furco, 2002). It is demanding even in stable contexts. In settings of prolonged conflict, it requires balancing sustainable structures with flexibility, mission alignment with immediate social needs, and community partnerships when communities themselves face severe disruption. This reflective account explores the ongoing process of embedding service-learning at Bethlehem University in Palestine and the lessons it offers for institutions seeking to strengthen democratic culture through service-learning.

As a Catholic Lasallian university committed to quality higher education and service to Palestinian society, Bethlehem University has been advancing service-learning within the university’s broader social mission, aligning with what is often described in European higher education as the ‘Third Mission’ of universities. This work combines classroom innovation and institutional support. An internal Uniservitate evaluation has indicated Advanced progress overall: service-learning is fully aligned with the institutional mission, very developed in regulations, and developed in curricular integration. Support structures for faculty, students, and community partners are either in place or under active development, though full institutionalisation remains an ongoing journey.

This progress builds directly on concrete pedagogical experiences. In English and communication courses, students engage in complete service-learning cycles, from social diagnosis to project design, implementation, reflection, and public communication, on issues such as stigma reduction, women’s empowerment, identity, and community awareness. Research on these experiences (Awwad & Ayyad, 2025) shows gains in students’ critical thinking, digital competences, leadership, autonomy, empathy, civic agency, spirituality, and sense of solidarity, contributing to collective resilience during wartime.

The institutionalisation process involves complementary roles and structures. The Academic Innovation Hub (AIH) supports faculty development in andragogy and applied teaching methods to embed service-learning systematically. The Institute for Community Engagement & Partnership provides coordination, while relevant deanships assist curricular integration. International networks, including Uniservitate and ServU dialogues, further strengthen the work.

The experience highlights both opportunities and real barriers to institutionalising service-learning as democratic education under pressure: the need for formal governance support and mission coherence alongside pedagogical adaptability and reciprocal community collaboration. What makes this case significant is not that Bethlehem University has achieved institutionalisation despite the conflict, but that the conflict has clarified what institutionalisation must be capable of and that the resulting model has lessons for higher education institutions elsewhere seeking to make service-learning durable, mission-driven, and genuinely responsive to social need.