Toolbox - Community engagement in higher education

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In this section, we present innovative and open-access tools to support universities with institutional self-reflection and action-planning for community engagement.

Support, mentorship & peer learning

A growing network of universities have already applied the Toolbox and are we are eager to support new institutions wishing to enhance their community engagement through webinars, training and advice/mentorship in the Toolbox process, as well as to explore options for peer-learning.

To enquire about support options, please contact us via the email address.

Stage 1

00 / 05

Institutional self-reflection

The full TEFCE Toolbox package can be freely downloaded as a single document or by stages of implementation (below). The TEFCE Toolbox is an open access resource under Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0.

Download institutional self-reflection package

Other language versions:

Stage 1

01 / 05

Stage 1: Quick Scan

Setting up a team of university and community representatives and launching a discussion on the type and extent of community engagement at the university.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 2

02 / 05

Stage 2: Evidence collection

Collecting case studies of community-engaged practitioners throughout the university and from external communities.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 3

03 / 05

Stage 3: Mapping report

Identifying good practices and assigning a level of community engagement of the university, resulting in a ‘mapping report’ (later integrated in the institutional report).

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 4

04 / 05

Stage 4: Participative dialogue

Open discussions among university management, staff, students and the community on strengths and areas of improvement.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 5

05 / 05

Stage 5: Institutional report

Comprehensive report which presents the TEFCE Toolbox mapping results, celebrates good practices and highlights areas for further improvement.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 1

00 / 05

Institutional self-reflection

The full TEFCE Toolbox package can be freely downloaded as a single document or by stages of implementation (below). The TEFCE Toolbox is an open access resource under Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0.

Institutional self-reflection package

Other language versions:

Stage 1

01 / 05

Stage 1: Quick Scan

Setting up a team of university and community representatives and launching a discussion on the type and extent of community engagement at the university.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 2

02 / 05

Stage 2: Evidence collection

Collecting case studies of community-engaged practitioners throughout the university and from external communities.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 3

03 / 05

Stage 3: Mapping report

Identifying good practices and assigning a level of community engagement of the university, resulting in a ‘mapping report’ (later integrated in the institutional report).

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 4

04 / 05

Stage 4: Participative dialogue

Open discussions among university management, staff, students and the community on strengths and areas of improvement.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 5

05 / 05

Stage 5: Institutional report

Comprehensive report which presents the TEFCE Toolbox mapping results, celebrates good practices and highlights areas for further improvement.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 1

00 / 05

Institutional action-planning

After universities have applied the self-reflection process of the TEFCE Toolbox, universities can approach the next phase - action-planning for community engagement.

The action-planning methodology and framework (developed as part of the EU-funded) SHEFCE projects open access (CC BY 4.0) and can be freely downloaded as a single document or by stages of implementation (below).

Download institutional action-planning package

Stage 1

01 / 05

Stage 1: Framing

Defining who is creating the plan, what its scope is and what values it supports

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 2

02 / 05

Stage 2: Prioritising

Prioritising key areas based on prior evidence.

Download guidelines

Stage 3

03 / 05

Stage 3: Planning

Developing action plan based on SHEFCE template.

Download guidelines

Download template

Stage 4

04 / 05

Stage 4: Dialogue

Discussing needs/action with community partners.

Download guidelines

Stage 5

05 / 05

Stage 5: Evaluating

Defining processes to monitor implementation and evaluate outcomes

Download guidelines

The European Platform for Community engagement in higher education is a result of the project Steering Higher Education for Community Engagement (www.shefce.eu), funded by the European Union from Erasmus+ programme.

Content on the platform is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 BY-NC International license.

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The views expressed in this web site are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and of the Institute for the Development of Education and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the project’s funding institutions. The funding institutions cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.