Assessing the Community Engagement Practises by the Universities Through a Comprehensive Measurement Index

Abstract

Community engagement by universities holds importance as the output a university produces should be socially relevant. Community university engagement refers to the university and community working together for a common welfare goal with equal ownership. Community engagement practises are less standardized globally, unlike teaching-learning and research. Therefore, the research aims at identifying the factors for the measurement of community engagement in universities to systematise its practice. The quantitative study is conducted on 99 faculties of both private-owned and public-owned universities. The research proposes some motivating factors that make faculties do community engagement. Also, 17 factors are suggested after reviewing the interviews and the literature for preparing a comprehensive measurement index of community engagement. Literature does suggest different factors for assessing community engagement among universities but none of them primarily talks about community engagement in the Indian system of higher education. This research will sensitize the readers, especially the policymakers to the factors that motivate faculty to do community engagement. The study will also make academicians rework their community engagement more systematically. The study altogether takes a global approach, although, the analysis part is restricted to Indian academicians.