Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI)

I recently came across this interesting initiative at NUI Galway. It is known as the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) and

'supports and promotes the ethos of civic engagement among students, staff and the wider community. Through partnerships with community groups and organisations, CKI helps the University share with, and learn from, civil society. Whether supporting volunteering among students, integrating community into teaching or researching social needs – the aim is to reinvigorate the civic mission of higher education in Ireland by engaging with the wider community.'

The CKI would appear to have much in common with the Learning and Teaching for Transformation (LTT) initiative which I posted on earlier and which works towards meeting the challenge for education in a globalising world through discovering and exploring forms of learning and teaching that promote the emergence of civil societies and which are relevant to their own social and cultural settings. Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs), through teaching, training and research, play a pivotal role in the social, political and economic change necessary for sustainable development. But such change will only occur if it is responsive to the needs of the wider community. Initiatives like the CKI and LTT are obviously well placed to build collaborative learning partnerships that ensure capacity building and research is relevant to the wider community.

The CKI has recently been involved in the publication of Higher Education and Civic Engagement – International Perspectives