Undergraduate Students Community Service Participation for Promoting Civic Engagement in Universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad

Abstract

Sustainable development is an underlying goal of Higher Education, which is largely achieved by universities through community service and research projects. Participation of students in community development projects aims to develop their civic engagement and prepares them as future leaders in their fields. This descriptive research was therefore conducted as a baseline study to examine the nature of community service conducted by university students and their civic engagement. A questionnaire was administered on 984 purposively sampled undergraduate students from six public sector universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, who had engaged in community work. In order to draw relevant findings, frequency, percentage, and quantitative descriptive analyses were conducted to figure out the nature of community service participation of students, and the goals of civic engagement that they achieved. On the basis of the findings, HEIs are recommended to educate students about service learning, and formally train their students for undertaking community projects, with practical suggestions for promoting civic engagement through community service for a sustainable future.