Unraveling university-community engagement : a literature review

Abstract

University-community engagement has been implemented by an increasing number of universities across the world, in a period characterized by growing international competition. The growing interest in university-community engagement has resulted in a variety of definitions and a high level of complexity as to what the concept means and what it entails. Using a literature review, this paper offers a critical assessment of the academic literature on university-community engagement. The paper aims to provide insight into trends, commonalities and variation in the literature, to enable the identification of an agenda for future research. Four main gaps in the literature are distinguished. The paper calls for a more critical conceptual discussion that should be supported by empirical research. The paper suggests to broaden the theoretical lens, and the use of particular research approaches such as theories of change, in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the concept of university-community engagement.