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Higher Education and Community Engagement
on CSR – we should be talking to each other, to learn from each other. The relationship between industry and community engagement should not be separated but for the purposes of this paper, it will be community engagement that will be the thrust focused on and supported by industry engagement. As we promote this industry and community integrated sector, it is important to subject it to quality assurance criteria and indicators as have been done for the academic domain of the university, with a focus on teaching and learning. There is a need to develop standard operating procedures for quality engagement processes within the university and with external stakeholders. In addition, we need to develop clear indicators for successful multisectoral engagement. These will feed into review audits that will be carried out to assess the quality of engagement at institutional levels, and just as importantly the social impact assessment of community engaged projects.
Policy Guidelines for Effective Stakeholder Engagement Engagement with external stakeholders, if done well, brings tremendous visibility and enhances the profile of the institution. But when done badly, creates negative and sometimes irreparable damage to the institution. When an academic or professional staff member of the university deals with a member of industry or community, he or she does not represent himself or herself individually. Instead, the staff member represents the institution and it is the name of the institution that you carry with you. Therefore, acquiring competencies to work effectively and with sensitivity with external stakeholders is absolutely critical. The education of internal stakeholders on effective engagement is very important. As a start for this, we have developed a detailed Engagement Policy Guidelines Document which sets out clear management processes, systems and procedures to develop meaningful, sustainable, considerate & productive interactions with both internal and external stakeholders. The processes delineate guidelines for various stages in the continuum of engagement including Engagement Planning, Preparation and Negotiation, Finalizing Engagement, Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting. We are now developing an Engagement Scorecard to enable us to evaluate in detail the quality, effectiveness and impact of our engagement with external stakeholders. It is important for higher education institutions to have standard operating procedures, systems and processes that are clear