Conference proceedings from Australian higher ed and civic engagement conf

Posted by on September 12, 2003

InsideOut 2003, an international conference on higher education and civic engagement was held at The University of Queensland, Ipswich, Australia 3-5 July 2003. InsideOut 2003 papers and powerpoint presentations have now been released via the conference http://www.uq.edu.au/insideout/ website. The next InsideOut Conference will be held in July 2005.

The inaugural meeting of The Australian Consortium for Higher Education, Community Engagement, and Social Responsibility was held during the InsideOut Conference. Professor Ira Harkavy, Co-Chair of The International Consortium http://iche.sas.upenn.edu/, provided an overview of the international research and engagement work of the consortium to more than fifty five academic and senior executive leaders representing Australia’s 38 universities.

The Australian Consortium will undertake a national review of community engagement and social responsibility practices in Australian universities over the next three years. This research will make a substantial contribution to our understandings of many issues and dynamics in community engagement, social responsibility, democracy education, and engaged scholarship. In focusing on universities as sites of citizenship in particular, it makes a serious examination of a core social institution shaping democratic and local community development. Since the InsideOut Conference, the project team has been working hard to confirm funding for the three year research project and to finalise the list of Collaborating Researchers from Australia’s 38 universities. The Australian Consortium will also coordinate a series of seminars and one day workshops during 2004.