With Community Engaged Learning (CEL) you can connect your education to society, with the aim of contributing to solving social issues. CEL is not a method of instruction, but a way to, for example, design an entire course. Students, in collaboration with social partners, apply their knowledge and skills to provide solutions to social issues. In this way, students can orientate on the labor market and work-related issues during their studies..
Learning together
CEL creates connections between education at the university and what is happening in society, in the world and/or in the neighbourhood. This involves mutual learning from each other. Students learn from their peers and from working with partners. Partners learn from students and are helped by their knowledge and skills.
Collaboration within CEL projects is multidisciplinary by nature, with students from different programmes bringing their knowledge and experiences to investigate social issues and propose solutions. Students almost always work autonomously in these projects, with you as the lecturer acting as a supervisor.
With CEL, the clients are often local governments and social partners. Think of, for example, the municipality of Nijmegen and IederTalentTelt.
Motivating education
CEL is educational and motivating for your students in several ways:
- They work on ‘real’ assignments that make it tangible how they can contribute to social issues from their field of expertise.
- They reflect on their role in society.
- They develop personal and professional skills.
- They learn how to emphatise with others and get acquainted with different perspectives.
- They learn to reflect on their role regarding social issues.
Examples
Every year, hundreds of students from secondary vocational education, higher professional education and university contribute to solving social issues in the city. A selection of the projects:
- Students of Spatial Planning, Psychology, Science, Management and Innovation at Radboud University are developing a plan to make the environment of the Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital more green. Facility Management students (HAN University of Applied Sciences) are making an inventory of the needs of employees and students of the Garden and Landscape Design programme (Yuverta MBO) are translating all these results into a garden design.
- During a Challenge, students of Radboud University, HAN University of Applied Sciences and ROC Nijmegen will consider the transformation of the Winkelsteeg industrial area into an attractive residential area for young people.
- Anthropology and Development Studies students at Radboud University are considering a water taxi between the city centre and Nijmegen-Noord.
- Communication students at HAN University of Applied Sciences are considering how to engage and retain residents during the municipal elections.
