Guidebook for the Engaged University

Academics—and most of us—want to leverage our time and talents to make the world a better place, but the biases and bureaucracies of universities can make external impacts challenging. The traditional university model thus underperforms relative to its social and environmental potential. Solutions-oriented students are demanding a new approach. Passive engagement is no longer acceptable to communities that surround and support universities. And the factors shaping our collective future, such as climate change, are volatile and urgent.

To address these realities and opportunities, the next phase of academic reforms must build toward the broad institutionalization of engaged scholarship—the Engaged University.

The Guidebook for the Engaged University gives the academy both a vision and a roadmap to a more impactful future, in which universities, including their scholars and staff, catalyze solutions for the world’s most pressing challenges.