Home - ACU (The Australian Catholic University)

Site Navigation

Community Engagement in Context

Community engagement enhances our opportunities to honour our "commitment to serving the common good", expressed in our Mission. In partnership with other organisations, the staff and students of ACU are bringing about change, through their own research, learning, attitudes and actions, and in the lives of others.

Context

Within the context of its mission, Australian Catholic University sees engagement as:

  1. enhancing the dignity and wellbeing of people and communities;
  2. depending on trusted relationships and genuine partnerships with community organisations, institutions and corporations;
  3. an integral focus of the University's teaching, learning and research; and
  4. advancing the University's Mission in its "commitment to serving the common good".

Australia, and the rest of the world, is in the midst of a profound economic and social transformation where it is inappropriate for citizens to be marginalised, poor and disadvantaged.

It is critical for Australia to seek ways to connect the disconnected and marginalised citizens among us. Universities, as public sites for education and research, have a pivotal role to play in this regard.

The opportunities afforded by community engagement for enabling the learning, teaching and research activities of universities to inform public policy need to be developed in ways which enable these institutions to be critically involved in shaping Australia's social and economic structures so as to assist people and communities in moving beyond disadvantage.