The premise of this article is that the "jury is still out" to describe what effective Community Engagement entails in South African higher education institutions. The current discussions about community engagement and service learning do not cover the primary objective of adding value to the community, particularly of the rural-based…

Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the South African education reforms and the civic engagement agenda in higher education, this article focuses on service learning in higher education and portrays complex relationships between the service-learning office and different existing structures within and outside the University…