Tower, John and Broadbent, Robyn (2011) University and community partnerships: building social capital and community capacity. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 13 (2). pp. 51-67. ISSN 1466-6529

Abstract

Higher education has great capacity to build ongoing partnerships with community groups to address a range of issues associated with social disadvantage. In early 2004, Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, established a Community Engagement Working Party to clarify the principles and objectives underpinning the university’s approach to community engagement. As a result of that process a new Learning in the Workplace and Community (LiWC) policy was established and is now a key feature of all teaching programmes at Victoria University in vocational education and higher education. LiWC provides a good opportunity to develop partnerships that will be ongoing and developmental. The aim of this paper is to discuss the unique partnership between a community centre and a university that would see, in 2009, over 100 students from eight different disciplines across the university working in teams, on projects and individually with young people in the heart of Melbourne’s west as a part of their own undergraduate course work. A case study approach has been used to explore the features of the partnership, which has produced educational and community outcomes. This partnership evidences the important role that a university can play in partnering community change, building the capacity of the teaching programmes among their own students and staff and building social capital in a community.

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