Volunteerism in the EU: The Role of the University

Universities have a role in communities “beyond job creation” to cultivate ethical citizens through teaching, research, and service activities of professors and staff embedded within a university. (See Bryer, Thomas. 2014.... [ view full abstract ]

Universities have a role in communities “beyond job creation” to cultivate ethical citizens through teaching, research, and service activities of professors and staff embedded within a university. (See Bryer, Thomas. 2014. Higher Education beyond Job Creation: Universities, Citizenship, and Community. Lanham: Lexington Books). In the United States, there are many pressures to focus more on economic rationales at the cost of citizenship. Similar dynamics are affecting universities in Lithuanian and throughout Europe.

The Europe for Citizens Programme aims to “foster European citizenship and
improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level.” In 2015, the Municipal Training Center (MTC) at Kaunas University of Technology received a grant from the programme for a project entitled “Volunteering—Code of Active Citizenship.” The project includes university and NGO partners from Latvia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands. These countries represent diverse experiences, cultures, institutions, and histories in supporting volunteerism in support of societal need.

This paper describes the rationale for KTU’s Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities to host a project that engages community partners, and offers suggestions for the development of measures of university success, including what Bryer calls the university’s Return on Engagement (ROE). Comparisons are made to a parallel center at the University of Central Florida (USA): the Center for Public and Nonprofit Management.

We present findings from interviews with university leaders, as well as interviews
with project partners within the six participating EU countries. We offer recommendations for (1) development of similar initiatives in other universities, and (2) strategies for developing a “business” and “civic” case for investing university resources in projects of these kinds.