A basic function of higher education institutions is to use different means of producing knowledge. One such way is through research partnerships with external stakeholders such as community-based organizations. To date, partnership research has expanded remarkably across the globe as an effective approach to the co-creation of knowledge. Building mutually beneficial partnerships though is not easy, and expressions of power inequalities, such as issues related to structures and processes, roles and relationships, artefacts and discourses, partnership configurations and transformations over time, and partners’ identities and status, persist. While we have reached a stage of maturity in understanding benefits of collaboration between diverse knowledge actors from different knowledge systems with their own cultures and incentive structures, few studies have addressed the more analytical and practical questions around power relationship in community-university research partnerships.

Keeping this in mind, as a preliminary sept, a round-table on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility of Institutions of Higher Learning was organized at DRTC-CYSD, Bhubaneswar on 25th January 2023. The delegates of the round-table included the Vice Chancellors and faculty members from 15 Universities of Odisha, former Vice Chancellors, Officials from the Department of Higher Education, academia, CSO leaders, Think Tank and the Development Practitioners.

Views of the Panellists

Joining the round-table, Dr. (Mrs.) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities, in her key note address highlighted the disconnect between the universities and the society; and the consequences. Higher educational institutions need to bring in social responsibility and community in their vision and development mechanisms to adopt a functional approach to community engagement. University Society Responsibility (USR) is as important as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), she said. Regular interface between the university and the community and exchange of knowledge are very critical to strengthen engagement with the society. The students pursuing higher education need to understand the issues and challenges of the community and develop projects to address them. Therefore, the community knowledge needs to be extracted through research, analyzed, documented and integrated with the university curriculum. The opportunities available under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) can be harnessed for the purpose, added Dr. Pankaj.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Das, Vice-Chairperson, Odisha State Higher Education Council (OSHEC) underlined that the State has successfully combined inclusivity and excellence in the system of education. He emphasized that both science and social science should walk hand-in-hand to ensure inclusivity.

Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Co-chair of the UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education; and President, PRIA put importance on the National Education Policy, 2020 which focuses on producing engaged, productive and contributing citizens. The policy also aims at fostering community engagement and social responsivity, he added. While deliberating on community engagement, he emphasized on some of the key principles such as: valuing local knowledge, mutual learning and respect, linkage with the community institutions and the CBOs. The operational guidelines for the Higher Education Institutes which include: adopting existing course for community engagement as well as offering new courses; and undertaking research in partnership with the local community were also shared with the delegates.

Key Concerns

  • Lack of openness to learn from the community.
  • Linking knowledge from the Science Lab. with the community and vice versa
  • Dominance of physical science and technology
  • Lack of resources for conducting social science research
  • Need for convergence between National Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and NSS.

Dr. Budd Hall, Professor, School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, Canada; and Co-chair, UNESCO Chair on Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education shared the global perspective on knowledge and social responsibility in higher education. Dr. Hall highlighted on the dominance of English language; and exclusion of community based indigenous knowledge resulting in unequal knowledge distribution across the globe. Hence, there is a need for establishing knowledge democracy. With regard to social responsibility, he reiterated on ‘Reimagining our future together – A new social contract for education’ and said, the Higher Education institutions have transformative potential to take it forward.

Feedback and Suggestions shared by the Delegates

  • Building Students’ Perspective on University Community Linkage (encouraging students to be open to learn, identify Community Knowledge Resources – what they can take to the university, and prioritize critical issues in the community – how they can contribute to address the issues)
  • Developing socially responsible citizens through introduction of credit courses on ‘Citizenship Building’ and inculcation of ‘Values and Ethics’
  • Inclusivity and integration of the curriculum
  • Structured training programmes on university community linkage for the faculty members.
  • Building resilient communities and localization of SDGs through community engagement
  • Focused Action Research Projects and Documentation of Promising Practices
  • Collective reflection on: Why community engagement is not happening naturally and finding ways out
  • Infrastructure vs. Culture – Culture is more important for strengthening our economy; hence, community engagement is indispensable.
  • Need for sensitive engagement with the indigenous communities.
  • Innovations: Introduction of ‘Professor of Practice’, Promotion of Indigenous Enterprisers, Indigenous Research Activities

 

Way Forward

  • Sensitizing the young minds and the faculties through empathy-building exercises.
  • Partnership with CSOs involved in strengthening community institutions/ CBOs to work on the common action agenda.
  • Integrating community-based participatory research with the course curriculum.
  • Capacity building for creating a critical mass of faculty-facilitators in the community processes.

Moderating the deliberation, Shri Jagadananda, former State Information Commissioner, Odisha; and Mentor & Co-Founder of CYSD, in his concluding remarks, said that higher education institutions (HEIs) have an important role to play in the socio-economic development of the country through community engagement.