About the International Community Engagement Conference

Every two years during Community Engagement Week, Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 hosts the International Community Engagement Conference.

The ICEC brings together CE practitioners from across the globe to reflect and learn alongside a diverse community of invested academics, community organisations, students and community members. 

During this conference, the winner of the Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Award for Community Engagement presents a lecture on their work in the nexus of Research, Teaching and Learning and CE. 

Community Engagement (CE) is part of contemporary higher education lexicon because of its formalization as a core function of universities in democratic South Africa, other parts of Africa and some countries in the global South. However, the interaction between community-university-society has a much longer history than its current higher education function. The engagement and relationship between community-university-society in contemporary South Africa is significant and topical because of the developmental role mandated to universities as part of the national transformation agenda. Universities are required to demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good through community engagement programmes.

While the conceptualization of higher education CE remains fluid, depending on the context and history of higher education institutions in South Africa, CE is often described as the process through which universities bring the capabilities of its academe and students to work collaboratively with community groups and organisations to achieve mutually agreed upon goals to build capacity, create just and sustainable outcomes, and improve the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the university.

In higher education, community engagement is a collection of activities that includes service learning, engaged research, and volunteerism, and it aims to address specific social, economic, and political needs.

It is important that the history of community-university-society relationship and its influence on contemporary higher education CE in South Africa be told, written and known. Critical and structured reflection is an essential learning activity in CE. Reflection on experiences can take many forms, including the telling of stories on the CE experience and through relating current experiences to prior knowledge, perceptions, and historical events. This knowledge will have a significant impact on future possibilities for community engagement, specifically with regard to epistemic justice, social justice and the cultivation of humanity in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

Previous Conferences

2024 - Community Engagement Conference - Community Engagement And The Trajectory Of Community-老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网-Society Relationship: Past, Present And Future Possibilities

2023 - Community Engagement Learning Symposium - In Partnership with Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Centre of Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning - The Significance and Impact of Higher Education Community Engagement for South Africa and the Continent

2021 - Community Engagement Symposium - The role of Community Engagement in the reimagination of higher education during and post the Covid 19 Pandemic -CE Symposium 2021 Booklet 

Last Modified: Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:27:39 SAST