Skip to content
  • Home
  • Public engagement
    • Public engagement
    • Community
    • Engagement
    • PhD experiences

Civic Learning

Blog about the scholarship of engagement through universities working with communities

Month: June 2015

Public Engagement blog: University-Community Engagement: Who benefits?

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Mark Charlton

NPG D1465,Elizabeth, Lady de Clare,by; after John Faber; Unknown artistThere is an increasing interest in how universities engage with their communities and how they can work with partners, groups and individuals to undertake projects of mutual benefit. Despite this renewed focus on the role of Higher Education in society, engagement between university and local communities has a long history. In the UK, relationships between universities and communities have evolved along with the growth of student numbers and expectations on academics to share their learning. This article looks at what the motivation or drivers for universities to undertake such work are, or whether it is the role of higher education to deliver these activities at a time of great change in higher education. With increasing calls for university-community engagement that delivers mutual benefit, this article explores the idea of university-community engagement to consider which stakeholder, if any, is the beneficiary of such activity, arguing that too little is known about the outcomes for all parties to say if there is any benefit in university-community engagement at all. Continue reading “Public Engagement blog: University-Community Engagement: Who benefits?” →

Tagged Public engagement

Public Engagement blog: Impact of volunteer reading mentors in schools

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Mark Charlton
Green = Good news!
Green = Good news!

Earlier this week, the DMU Square Mile office received raw data showing the impact of the work of De Montfort University’s paired-reading mentors at New College, Leicester. It’s a spreadsheet of numbers showing reading ages in August 2014 and reading ages in June 2015 for around sixty 11-12 year-olds (year 7/8). Each child has attempted to improve his or her reading by working with a DMU undergraduate or community volunteer by meeting on a weekly basis and reading together. Move pupils have improved. It almost sounds too easy… But this requires the will of the pupil to attend and the volunteer to give up his or her spare time to attend. This is a big, yet rewarding, commitment for the student. Read some of the DMU Square Mile volunteering experiences by students Janvi Pala, Sarah Clark and Jonathan Boreland. Some of the colour-coded data on the spread sheet is black – where the child did not engage in the project, others are red, where insufficient progress was made, but thankfully this data shows that in many cases the spreadsheet glows green – indicating good progress.

Continue reading “Public Engagement blog: Impact of volunteer reading mentors in schools” →

Tagged Public engagement

This blog:

I’m Mark Charlton, Associate Director of Public Engagement at De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom.  I’m passionate about universities using Service-Learning, community-based learning, civic learning, the scholarship of engagement, learning-linked volunteering and all the other ways we describe students sharing their skills and knowledge beyond the campus. I encourage all staff and students to embed the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals into their work. I also lead the United Nations Academic Impact Initiative Global Academic Hub for SDG 16 at DMU. I am a PhD Scholar, researching the impacts of civic engagement on students’ political participation.

Categories

  • Citizen Science
  • Community
  • Higher Education
  • Participation
  • PhD experiences
  • Podcasts
  • Political participation
  • Public engagement
  • Research
  • Smart City
  • Uncategorized

DMU is UNAI hub for SDG16

SDG16:

Click here for podcasts:

  • SoundCloud

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Archives

  • December 2020
  • May 2020
  • September 2019
  • May 2019
  • November 2018
  • April 2018
  • November 2017
  • May 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • Home
  • Public engagement
Website Powered by WordPress.com.
Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×