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.

Description of the work: Current worldwide challenges have become increasingly complex and can no longer be addressed by a single discipline; they require collaborative input from various academic fields and stakeholders outside of academia, such as local communities ( Klein 2001). To prepare future scientists for these collaborative environments, there is an urgent need to incorporate community engagement activities in higher education through pedagogies like Service Learning (SL) (Aramburuzabala, 2019). While SL is widely applied, and well promoted and documented in the higher education institutions (HEIs) of the Global North institutionalisation remains a challenge (Aramburuzabala, 2019). In Global South there are even more gaps in embedding and promotion of such practices.

In order to explore and uncover such constraints and gaps, this research assesses the significant community engagement and/or service learning practices conducted by five higher education institutes (HEI) within Malaysia and India who participate in the OPEN ASIA project (financed by the EU).

Methodology: In the research we apply a qualitative survey and case studies of exemplary practices.

Results: The findings show that all HEIs had a longstanding practice of community engagement with a strong connection/relationship with local communities. The findings highlight that effective engagement is a mutually beneficial process. For communities, university involvement leads to tangible improvements in vital areas. For students, these practices offer experiential learning that develops critical soft skills, while sensitizing them to the urban-rural divide and pressing societal challenges. For HEIs, public engagement strengthens institutional reputation and ensures that curricula and research remain grounded in real-world challenges

Despite these benefits, the paper identifies significant challenges to the institutionalization of engagement, most of the initiatives are organized and sustained by individuals/groups, departments/faculties, the struggle to overcome "institutional silos," and the logistical complexities of reaching remote communities. The study concludes that the future of higher education lies in a "whole-campus approach" to sustainability and engagement taking into account the specific cultural and contextual nuances of the HEIs, different levels of embedding, diverse routes of engagement. These experiences offer important lessons applicable to institutions in both the Global South and the Global North.

References:

Aramburuzabala, P., L. McIlrath, and H. Opazo. 2019. Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education: Developing a Culture of Civic Engagement. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315109053.

Klein, J. T. (2001). The discourse of transdisciplinarity: an expanding global field. In

Transdisciplinarity: Joint problem solving among science, technology, and society (pp.

35-44).

Higher education institutions (HEI) are seen as playing a central role in addressing social challenges and transformation (Meyer-Guckel, 2016) and cooperation forms between HEI and civil society are being discussed - also on basis of the term Campus Community Partnerships (CCP). At the level of university teaching, formats like service learning (subject-specific learning + engagement) are being considered (Bringle & Clayton, 2012; Slepcevic-Zach et al., 2023). For an implementation of CCP (e.g. Service Learning) change processes (organizational and personal development) are needed. In German language countries it is observed, that CCP at HEI is work in progress. This was the starting point for the study ‘Strategies and organizational structures for CCP at HEI in Germany’, which is funded by the FGZ (Transferfonds). A mixed-method design was chosen encompassing a questionnaire survey deployed among boards and staff separately as well as content analysis of transfer mission statements and interviews. This contribution mainly focusses on results from the questionnaire surveys regarding the institutionalization and therefore addresses Track B. A total of n=101 board members and n=70 lecturers from all federal states participated (2023).
Findings reveal that 58,9% of the board members agreed or tended to agree that CCP is an important form of knowledge transfer. In contrast only a fourth (24, 7%) of the board members agreed/tended to agree on the statement, that the institutionalization of CCP is advanced. Regarding aspects of institutionalizing CCP l only 10,9% of the board members reported coordination positions, and approximately a third (30,6 & 38,6 %) announced giving incentives to lecturers and students. Crosstabs revealed relationships between incentives to students and HEI type (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=70, p =.011) and research orientation (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=67, p =.028) as well as between incentives for lecturers and student numbers (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=72, p =.038). Correlation analysis also showed statistically significant relationsships between the perceived degree of institutionalization and the use of external funding (Spearmans ρ = .483, p < .001) as well as the use of internal ressources (Spearmans ρ = .635, p < .001). In addition lecturers report, that CCP is mainly initiated by themselves. We could deduce that the potential of support structures has not fully been realised and that interventions to foster CCP may be the expansion of funding initiatives and a stronger control of the activity structure by the government. But the reasonableness should be discussed with regard to the autonomy of HEI (Rameder et al., 2023).