Community engagement allows universities the opportunity to play an important role of social responsibility in the local and broader vicinity they operate within.
Our main objective is to lead and facilitate the development of best practice university-community engagement in Australia. This is done through creating inclusive forums for discussion and development of engagement, promoting practice, fostering awareness, building capacity and developing resources. Through the work of our Board, committees and working groups, EA provides an array of professional development activities as well as networking opportunities to develop engagement knowledge, skills and capacity and build interactive networks, partnerships and other relationships within and between universities, business, industry, government and community-based organisations.
Championing unique role universities have in society addressing contemporary challenges through teaching, research and partnerships.
The following book chapter The Australian Universities Accord: An Access perspective is taken from the new book The Challenge of Change: Access and Opportunity in Mass Higher Education by Professor Jim Nyland and Emeritus Professor David Davies, which will be published and circulated to EA members later this year. ENJOY!
After 6 years as Chair of Engagement Australia (EA), Professor Jim Nyland has chosen to step aside from the role of Chair. Jim has made an outstanding contribution to Engagement Australia and during his time as Chair, oversaw the establishment of EA as the authoritative national voice on community and industry engagement, doubling its membership base. Engagement Australia is very fortunate that Jim has agreed to continue to work with EA in an executive capacity exploring new growth opportunities and providing increased support to our members.
The Universities Accord process presents a once in a generation opportunity to shape the future of Australian higher education, both now and into the future. It considers a wide breadth of issues facing the university sector, including how to meet Australia’s future skills requirements, increasing access for under-represented cohorts of students, enhancing student and staff welfare, changed governance and regulation arrangements, and ensuring that teaching and research activities are sustainable.
We are currently calling for papers for our upcoming transform journal. The Journal features articles that advance the scholarship of engagement within Australia and internationally, providing space for critical inquiry, reflection, and review. The Journal includes empirical research, practiceoriented research, and reviews of practice relevant to engagement in the Higher Education sector.
There are those who believe the Australian dream is owning your own home. Others believe it is wanting your kids to have a better life than you have had (along with an increasing realisation that this is sadly becoming less likely). The journalist, academic and historian, Norman Mackenzie, who helped found Britain’s largest university, the Open University (quoted above) believed that the Australian dream of the ‘fair go’ was coterminous with being given another chance to succeed.
As Chair of Engagement Australia (EA) can I take this opportunity to wish you and your family all the very best for the festive season, as we hurtle towards the end the year. The third decade of the 21st Century continues to be a time of great challenge, change and opportunity for universities everywhere as witnessed at the fabulous 2023 Engagement Australia International Conference and Excellence Awards annual event themed Engaged Universities: the Next 20 Years are Crucial!
INNOVATIVE
SUPPORTIVE
STRATEGIC
COLLABORATIVE
“The hallmark of engagement is the development of partnerships that ensure a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge between the University and the community.” Holland and Ramalay (2008:33).
