Service Learning for Enhancing Student Civic Engagement

Abstract

The NEXUS project focuses on cultural diversity and migration within higher education institutions (HEIs), and enhancing student civic engagement by integrating Service Learning elements into second language courses, i.e. teaching the language of the receiving country.

Service Learning as an educational method and as an integral activity of community engagement is crucial for the NEXUS project because it explicitly promotes cooperation between the academic community and the civil sector, putting the students and community engagement at the core of the learning experience. It also contributes to the achievement of the third mission of the university, which directly facilitates the development of the social responsibility of students and other members of the academic community in solving specific societal problems.

A Service Learning idea developed through NEXUS is based on second language courses which contain elements of culture and society of the receiving country and therefore lend themselves to including civic education and civic engagement elements for empowering students in the syllabus.