Making community-based learning and teaching happen: findings from an institutional study

Community-based learning and teaching in higher education, and other versions of it, such as service learning, are now part of many curricula worldwide. In the UK, there is a growing community of practitioners interested in student learning in partnership with local communities. With this expansion, however, there is little institution-based research which ‘looks within’, in terms of shared understanding and supporting this type of experiential learning ‘at scale’. Within the context of increasing interdisciplinary interest by those developing curricula beyond the traditional home of engaged research and teaching (for example, in urban studies and sociology), we undertook an institution-wide study to discover the shared understandings of community-based learning and teaching, including the potential barriers to, and opportunities for, community-based learning and teaching approaches. In this article, we share insights from a series of 20 university stakeholder interviews, which involved academic teachers, engagement professionals and those supporting learning and teaching. We used a ‘students-as-partners’ approach, where students interested in community-based learning took the leading role in the qualitative study. Our findings reveal the values and expectations, formal learning benefits and infrastructural considerations to implement this type of learning as part of future-facing curricula. We also provide recommendations for universities seeking to develop their own approaches towards facilitating community-based learning and teaching.