The 4th USRN Online Forum on “How Universities Measure Their Social Impact,” hosted by the University of Pretoria, was concluded successfully on 4 June 2025, bringing together approximately 100 academic leaders and practitioners from around the world to explore strategies for evaluating the societal contributions of higher education institutions.
Professor Loretta Feris, Vice Principal: Academic and Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Pretoria, opened the session by emphasising the importance for universities to demonstrate their impact on society, instead of merely claiming it.
The forum featured four insightful speakers: Professor Audrey Falk, Program Director and Professor of Community Engagement at Merrimack College, Dr Martina Jordaan, Head: Community Engagement Research and Postgraduate Students at University of Pretoria, Ms Diana Hornby, Director, Community Engagement Division at Rhodes University and Ms Megan Donnelley, Director of Societal Impact and Evaluation at UNSW Sydney. Each speaker provided unique perspectives on frameworks, implementation, and strategic integration of community engagement.
Professor Audrey Falk and Dr Martina Jordaan laid the theoretical foundation, highlighting the importance of aligning institutional missions, vision and values with community engagement. Professor Falk presented various models and frameworks for measuring social impact. She also discussed the logic model and metrics used by other universities for data collection and data evaluation. To conclude, she highlighted the significance of participatory approaches to evaluation, focusing on equity, access, diversity, reciprocity and community benefit in measuring social impact.
Dr Martina Jordaan presented the University of Pretoria’s structured toolkit for curricular community engagement initiatives. This toolkit consists of three phases – context-setting, action, and assessment of impact and sustainability. She also shared how she adapted the toolbox of “Towards a European Framework for Community Engagement in Higher Education” for assessing and evaluating impact at the university’s various levels. In particular, she emphasised micro-level evaluation across faculties and community partners.
Ms Diana Hornby provided a practical case study from Rhodes University, detailing the Vice Chancellor’s Education Pathway Programme, which aims at revitalising public education in Makanda, South Africa. She described a multi-level impact measurement approach, spanning from citywide to micro-programme level, to assess the programme impact. Her presentation underscored the power of data-driven planning and collaborative partnerships in achieving measurable educational outcomes.
Ms Megan Donnelley presented UNSW Sydney’s strategic integration of societal impact into its 10-year institutional plan, highlighting their four pathways and focus areas. She described their approach for measuring and evaluating impact across the university, which involves setting objectives, establishing indicators, and consulting with various stakeholders. She also introduced UNSW’s early-stage university-wide impact evaluation framework and shared an example of how they measure impact through their gateway programme for underrepresented students, focusing on outcomes such as success rates and retention.
At the conclusion, Professor Feris thanked all the speakers for their diverse perspectives on impact measurement, ranging from theoretical foundations to practical outcomes. The panel discussion not only highlighted common challenges, particularly in measuring qualitative aspects of impact, such as transformation and justice, but also issued a call to action for universities to move beyond transactional engagement and strive for deeper, more transformative partnerships that are accountable, inclusive, and sustainable.
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