The Community Engagement Unit (CEU) invites you to utilise this scholarship of engagement platform as a tool to support you with the alignment of your efforts and initiatives to that of the UWC Community Engagement Framework and the enhancement of your scholarship of engagement in your School, Faculty, Department, Centre, Division and Unit. The UWC recognises the importance of social responsibility and civic (civil society) engagement; this is especially reflected in the strategic decisions made at executive level to engage in partnership initiatives that laid the foundation for the development of the CEU.

 

The importance of engaging society and essentially developing a scholarship of engagement that encompasses and facilitates the development of graduate attributes reflects UWC’s history and ethos. The CEU is responsible for the facilitation and coordination of community engagement, at the UWC, in all its forms and as it is recognised and legislated as one of the three core responsibilities (teaching, research and community service) of higher education. The National Plan for Higher Education, (2001), emphasises the need for “...responsiveness to regional and national needs, for academic programmes, research, and community service...” 

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The CEU aligns with Butin's (2007) engagement types and Boyer’s (2008) scholarship of engagement model which refers to community engagement as a process that involves an evolution and transformation of knowledge as opposed to the simple transfer of information from one learning partner to another.