Civic Engagement in the CIVIS Alliance!

In a remarkable collaboration with our colleagues from the CIVIS Alliance, the first international CIVIS Staff Training on Service-Learning was organised and took place from April to May 2025. Over 30 lecturers from the CIVIS universities and African partner universities had the opportunity to learn how they can address current social challenges in their courses by integrating service-learning and make a valuable contribution to the community together with their students. In addition to the online sessions, there was also the opportunity for an intensive face-to-face exchange in Marseille, where innovative ideas for joint international service-learning projects were born.
 

As part of the CIVIS Days 2025 at Sapienza University in Rome, which took place in June 2025, the department chaired the session ‘World Café: A micro-credential for CIVIC Engagement’ as a member of the CIVIS expert group ‘Civic Engagement’. Around 40 participants worked with experts to find answers to key questions such as: ‘How can the Alliance promote civic engagement at universities?’ or ‘What ways are there to build sustainable collaborations with practice partners?’ The insights gained from these lively discussions are carefully documented and analysed by the Expert Group in order to use them for the future development of the Alliance.

And that's not all! By the end of the year, the TRACS Section will be an active member of the CIVIS expert group ‘Service-Learning’, contributing to the design of the CIVIS online course ‘Service-Learning: Guidelines for Lecturers’ and also publishing the ‘Guidelines for Community Partners’.

Would you like to explicitly address civic engagement in your teaching? We look forward to your questions and will be happy to support you with the implementation.