There is strong evidence that all students can gain significant learning benefit when their courses include opportunities for engagement with real-world problems, beyond the walls of their higher education institution (HEI). Internationally, cross-disciplinary discussions are increasing around the value of student learning that involves community engagement, a form of learning variably described as service learning, community-based research (CBR) or community-based learning (CBL), depending on its national setting and principal focus. This brief article summarizes papers from a symposium developed out of themed sessions on "Geography, Community Engagement and Citizenship" at the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference (2011) and the Association of American Geographers Annual Conference (2011). These sessions explored the following questions: (1) What is the potential of active public or community-student engagement to enhance the geography student's learning experience. In what CBL settings can learning be transformative? (2) How can the agendas of education for sustainability, community engagement and citizenship education interlink within the geography curriculum? (3) How can different types of citizenship education be delivered through the geography curriculum? and (4) What can be learned through research into different models of public/community engagement activities and their impact on the learning experiences of geography students in higher education and other stakeholders? The article concludes that CBR and CBL provide significant potential for geography's and geographers' engagement in societally relevant research and learning. The case study papers showcase how CBL and CBR have greater or enhanced learning potential compared with more traditional approaches to undergraduate research and fieldwork in geography.