Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on a number of initiatives in civil engineering undergraduate programmes at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) that allow students to complete engineering projects in the community, enabling them to learn by doing. Design/methodology/approach: A formal commitment to civic engagement was…

Universities have traditionally embraced three missions: teaching, research and community service. The latter usually receives lower status than the other two missions. There has, however, been a revival of interest in community service as a policy oriented exercise for universities and regional development, partly stimulated by international…

Purpose: Higher education is increasingly being scrutinised and discourse centred on its usefulness to stakeholders. In 1992, the University for Development Studies (UDS) was established in Northern Ghana with a mission to engage with local communities to develop the area. This paper aims to understand the quality perspective of the university…

This study examines how communities participate in schools across diverse contexts in developing countries and the results attributed to community participation. It reviews evaluations of participatory approaches to education in developing countries to answer two basic questions: 1) How do communities participate in school in developing countries?…

The authors describe a nonformal adult vocational education program developed in Rio Grande do Sul, a rural Brazilian state, which offers in-school vocational education as well as adult continuing education. Truck trailers with vocational equipment and trained personnel visit rural communities to provide learning experiences both in and out of the…

This study identifies important skills, knowledge areas, and attitudes of effective facilitators of nonformal education in community-based learning groups in Ecuador. A facilitator is an uncertified, nonprofessional educator who develops and maintains village learning groups outside the formal schooling system. Chapter one discusses the…

The study is a survey of the different kinds of voluntary rural service (service-learning) corps of students from the institutions of higher education in Malaysia. The history, organization, and activities of the service corps are examined, and this type of student social action is viewed with reference to the role of higher education in the…

This highlights the conclusions of a two-year study by the International Council for Educational Development of the ways in which higher education institutions in developing nations could assist in social and economic development. Extracted from case studies, reports, and minutes of meetings are recommendations for administrators, students,…