Across universities, we often face similar questions when designing and delivering social responsibility and volunteering programmes for students. How do we effectively reach and motivate diverse groups of students? What selection criteria and processes are fair, transparent, and aligned with programme goals? How can we assess student readiness, commitment, and learning without turning the process into a bureaucratic checklist? And what evaluation approaches can help improve programme quality while also supporting student development?
This USRN Online Forum, held in collaboration with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s 4th EVOLVE: Global Engagement and Student Development Salon, aims to bring together fellow USRN member institutions to share insights, best practices, and perspectives on engaging, selecting, and supporting students in university social responsibility and volunteering programmes. Through the exchange of practical models and real-world examples, the Forum will provide an opportunity to reflect on approaches that can enhance the quality and educational impact of universities’ community engagement initiatives
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Concerns about science scepticism, distrust in expertise, and forms of denialism have grown in recent years. “Post-truth” dynamics challenge both scientific authority and broader social trust, often for ideological or political ends. As Wight (2018) warns, abandoning the notion of objective truth erodes the very possibility of lies, justice, and rights; claims about social justice rely on shared standards of truth and moral common ground.
This online forum brings together speakers from the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN) member institutions to explore these challenges from different institutional and disciplinary perspectives. Together, we will consider these pressing questions: What responsibilities do scientists carry within the framework of university social responsibility? How should science communication respond in an age of mistrust and misinformation? And what are the implications for teaching and learning—what, and how should we be telling our students?
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How can universities harness their everyday operations to be more sustainable and inclusive? This online forum tried to answer this question by sharing three examples of innovative practices from around the world, where universities have advanced their core functions of sustainable campus operations and commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion to be more socially responsible.
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