Student community engagement programmes constitute a key element of the University of Pretoria’s university social responsibility (USR) endeavours. Indeed, at any one point, more than 50% of the approximately 53 000 students enrolled at the University of Pretoria are involved in at least one community engagement initiative. By the time students complete their first qualification at the University of Pretoria, all of them would have had some exposure to USR through their participation in The University’s extensive curricular and co-curricular community engagement programme.

One of the premises on which the University of Pretoria’s community engagement programme is based is that the education that is afforded our students gives them access to the skills, attributes and substantive freedoms (cf. Amartya Sen, 1999) that enable them not only to fulfil their career aspirations and to lead more actualised lives but also to contribute to the life chances of others in our world who do not yet have the opportunities that they have (Amartya Sen, 1999).

Another premise on which the community engagement and development programme is based is that our students’ collaboration with communities surrounding and beyond the university’s campuses offers them essential knowledge and skills that they would not otherwise acquire. For this reason, the university’s community engagement programme is core to its teaching and learning programmes as well as its research.

In essence, we have learned that for community engagement and development projects to be successful, they must be conceptualised and operationalised as mutually beneficial for the university and collaborating communities.

Communities should not simply be the sites where students have an opportunity to acquire additional local knowledge and sharpen their skills. Rather, they should also be seen as sites where students can develop and improve their problem-solving and societal innovation skills in the service of communities, and specifically in the service of efforts to address various socio-economic challenges confronting many local communities.

The University of Pretoria is committed to social and economic development that sustains and will not have a harmful impact on the environment. For this reason, the university has initiated a range of alternative (green) energy, smart building technology, and water and waste recycling endeavours. The university is constantly aware that our actions today will have a ripple effect and impact our future.

The University of Pretoria is proud to be the first African university to be invited to join the global University Social Responsiveness Network (USRN), an association that is committed to strengthening the social and environmental obligations of higher education.

University Website: https://www.up.ac.za/