Conference Agenda

In an era of democratic backsliding, polarization, and declining civic trust, higher education is increasingly called upon to cultivate not only disciplinary knowledge but also the competences necessary for democratic culture. While service-learning is widely recognized as a high-impact practice that fosters civic responsibility, critical thinking, and social awareness, its implementation often remains fragmented and dependent on individual faculty rather than embedded within institutional strategy.

This paper examines how service-learning can evolve from isolated pedagogical practices into an integrated form of democratic infrastructure. Drawing on a 20-year case study of the Center for Public Service at Tulane University, it presents an ecosystem model aligning various modes of community-engaged learning with institutional commitments to civic and democratic education. Each year, CPS supports over one hundred service-learning course sections and engages thousands of undergraduate students, creating a sustained platform for civic development.

The CPS model demonstrates how democratic competences such as civic agency, dialogue across difference, ethical reasoning, and collaborative problem-solving can be intentionally cultivated through multi-layered institutional design. Service-learning is embedded within general education requirements, ensuring access across disciplines. Structured leadership pathways, including Service-Learning Assistants, Community Engagement Advocates, and Civic Engagement Fellows, extend learning through peer facilitation, reflection, and dialogue. Complementary initiatives, including dialogue programs and debate fellowships, further strengthen students’ capacities for democratic participation. These efforts are grounded in long-term, reciprocal community partnerships and emphasize asset-based, co-creative approaches.

The paper also examines barriers to institutionalization, including disciplinary silos, misaligned faculty incentives, limited assessment tools for democratic competences, and tensions between transactional and transformational engagement. In response, it proposes an ecosystem framework that aligns mission, structures, incentives, and pedagogy, positioning service-learning as a core mechanism for advancing universities’ civic purpose.

For academics and practitioners, the presentation offers transferable takeaways: a framework for scaling service-learning into institution-wide civic education; strategies for embedding democratic competences across disciplines; models for developing student leadership pathways; approaches to building reciprocal community partnerships; and methods for addressing institutional resistance.

The paper also speaks to European contexts, demonstrating how service-learning can support inclusive participation, civic learning, and institutional transformation. By reframing service-learning as democratic infrastructure, it advances a vision of higher education as a co-creator of more participatory and resilient democratic societies.

"It literally changed my life." That's how Alexandre, a 23-year-old engineering student, spoke about service-learning during his final presentation for our University's Humanities minor. Alexandre had spent time helping elderly people navigate the internet, offering practical and emotional support. His words capture what institutionalization is ultimately for — not metrics, but transformation.

The Catholic University of Lille — 43,000 students across 23 schools and faculties — began Service Learning informally in 2019. Institutionalization started in 2021 with "The Humanity pathway", an inter-faculty programme in Ethics, Arts, Spirituality, and Philosophy. To earn a Minor in Humanities, students must complete a Service-Learning course within their own discipline. This graduation requirement has been the primary engine of development across the institution, creating a structural incentive that no awareness campaign alone could achieve. Today, 2,300 students participate, 1,700 through active Service-Learning projects. Our goal is 4,000 by 2030. In 2024, the university received a special mention at the Uniservitate Symposium in Rome.

Flagship projects illustrate the democratic dimension of this work. In the Law Bus, students travel to underserved communities to offer free legal counselling to vulnerable populations. Post-mission reflection sessions with professors help students question assumptions and connect lived experience to academic knowledge — developing empathy, civic responsibility, and critical thinking. Service-Learning shapes students into actors rather than bystanders. Our university aims to be a place where democratic values are not only taught but lived.

Yet institutionalization raises persistent challenges. Service-Learning is still perceived by some faculty as peripheral to academic work — more so in Business and Management than in Law, Medicine, or Social Studies. The boundary between Service-Learning, volunteering, and campus engagement remains blurry. Strong curricular embedding, reliable community partnerships, and meaningful assessment frameworks are essential conditions, not optional extras. Professors must design their courses with Service-Learning at the core, not as an add-on.

A dedicated team works closely with every school and faculty to implement the Humanities Minor and its Service-Learning component. Our deepest incentive is to bring teachers into the Third Mission of the university — giving them the opportunity to help shape professionals who are grounded, responsible, and ready to defend democratic values in an uncertain world.

Changing students' lives. One Alexandre at a time.

Institutionalizing Service Learning through a Tutoring Course in a STEM Institution

Erik Helin, Special Faculty

Carnegie Mellon University in Doha, Qatar

Track B: Service-learning institutionalization in higher education

This presentation examines the institutionalization of service learning through Language Bridges, a community outreach program at a branch campus of an American university in the Middle East, as a case study in advancing democratic culture in higher education. Founded in 2009, Language Bridges engages university students in teaching English and basic computer skills to low-income migrant workers through an eight-week program offered each semester (Pessoa et al., 2016; Soudy et al., 2015). Language Bridges is paired with an academic course titled Tutoring for Community Outreach. Framed within critical pedagogy (Freire, 2018), the course equips students with pedagogical training on teaching adult learners while fostering critical reflection on their civic engagement. Notably, the course fulfills a General Education requirement in Perspectives on Justice and Injustice, positioning service-learning within the formal academic framework.

In alignment with the Council of Europe’s (2023) call for more effective integration of competences for democratic culture, this presentation explores how institutional strategies can support the embedding of service learning within the “Third Mission” of universities in a context with great levels of inequality. Drawing on student reflections and course projects from the Tutoring course, the presenter shows how Language Bridges demonstrates how aligning community engagement initiatives with curricular requirements can mitigate resistance and enhance sustainability. By embedding the program within General Education, the university formalizes civic engagement as a core learning outcome rather than an extracurricular activity. The presentation further investigates the institutional alliances that sustain the program, including top-down support for the program that facilitate access to the migrant population. Despite its successes, Language Bridges also reveals persistent barriers to service learning including access to the target population, varying levels of student commitment, and challenges related to power structures and systemic inequalities.

The presentation considers the potential of transnational collaboration, particularly within European and global university alliances, to scale and adapt models like Language Bridges across diverse contexts. By illustrating how service learning can be systematically integrated into university structures, this case contributes to ongoing efforts to strengthen democratic culture and civic responsibility in higher education.