Socially Responsible Higher Education
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Item Bridging the gap between the researcher and the community: PRIA’s engagements in promoting community based research and social responsibility in higher educational institutions(Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), 2014) Tandon, Rajesh; Singh, Wafa; Srinivasan, SumitraPRIA has engaged with academia in a multitude of interventions, bringing community and practitioner knowledge into the portals of traditional research institutions and processes. By doing this, PRIA has helped Higher Educational Institutions (HEls) realize their social responsibility towards a community's needs and aspirations. This document traces PRIA's work in promoting community engagement within HEls in India and beyond. The experience, garnered over three decades, have been classified into six categories to highlight the different forms PRIA's interventions as a facilitator have taken to build bridges between the world of formal research, the practitioner knowledge of civil society actors and the experiential knowledge of local communities. The experiences discussed in this paper are not intended to be comprehensive; a few specific interventions are described under each category to illustrate the nature of the engagements fostered and the practices promoted.Item Commentary on the progress report on the futures of education(UNESCO Chair, 2020-04-24) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd LItem Disciplines, professions and the sustainable development goals (SDGs): Challenges in higher education in india(Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi), 2019) Tandon, Rajesh; Pandey, PoojaDr Rajesh Tandon and Pooja Pandey look at how Indian higher education institutions are engaging with the 2030 Agenda. India's scale of poverty, hunger, health and gender gaps makes this urgent, yet SDG integration remains largely absent from national policy and from bodies like AIU and FICCI, even as new UGC guidelines on social responsibility begin to open some space. Institutional examples from forest management education in Bhopal, climate resilience planning in Wayanad, and SDG teaching among engineering students at DTU show faculty-driven innovation that stays ad hoc rather than systemic. Rigid disciplinary and professional education frameworks emerge as the main obstacle to multi-disciplinary SDG work. The paper closes with recommendations for HEI leadership, regulatory councils, and civil society to push SDGs into the core teaching and research functions of Indian institutions.Item India launch of the UNESCO Chair in community-based research and social responsibility in higher education(UNESCO Chair, 2012-12) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshItem International collaboration for changing the culture of research: The UNESCO Chair in community-based research and social responsibility in higher education(Autonomie Locali e Servizi Sociali, 2020-04-01) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshThis paper traces the development of the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, established through the long-standing collaboration of Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon. It explains how the Chair promotes community-based participatory research by strengthening partnerships between universities, civil society organizations, and local communities across the Global South and the excluded North. This work includes global studies, open-access publications, international networks, and the K4C Consortium. Engaged research also supports the SDGs by fostering knowledge co-creation and socially responsible, locally grounded higher education. The paper argues that transforming research culture demands collaboration, knowledge democracy, and closer academia-community links to tackle social and environmental challenges.Item Introduction social responsibility and community based research in higher education institutions(BRILL, 2021) Hall, Budd L; Tandon, RajeshIn this paper, Budd Hall and Rajesh Tandon situate higher education at a crossroads shaped by neoliberalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and calls for decolonisation. They trace how the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education placed social responsibility at the centre of global debate, and how their own UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education grew out of that moment. The authors set out a knowledge democracy framework built on multiple epistemologies, co-constructed knowledge, and open access to research, then turn to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the political, financial, institutional, and knowledge deficits threatening their achievement by 2030. They close by outlining the book's four sections, on universities as civic space, decolonised curricula, engaged teaching, and new understandings of knowledge and the earth, gathering voices deliberately drawn from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the excluded North rather than the global North alone.Item Learning to Do, Learning to Be, Learning to Learn: Education for tomorrow(2020) Tandon, RajeshThe text discusses the need for sustainable development in modern civilization, education's role in society's economic, social, and environmental challenges, and education's capacity to foster learning to do, learn to be, and learn to know. It highlights HEIs' importance in co-creating and sharing knowledge and expertise to benefit society. In particular, the article describes the relationship between higher education institutions (universities) and the community as two-way communication where the community is considered a partner in education. Furthermore, the text emphasizes the importance of adopting an approach that promotes quality education (SDG 4), as well as education for sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, global citizenship, culture, and active societies (community engagement). In addition, the text promotes universities that are committed to contributing to society that values individuals and encourages them to lead fulfilling lives and become responsible and ethical agents.Item The power of creativity, knowledge and action in knowledge mobilization: Reflections from international work(Canadian Commission for UNESCO, 2020-05) Tandon, Rajesh; Hall, Budd LIn this paper, Dr. Budd Hall and Dr. Rajesh Tandon examine how knowledge mobilization can become a more effective tool for social transformation when it is integrated throughout the research process rather than treated as a final dissemination activity. Drawing on over four decades of community-based participatory research (CBPR) across the global South and excluded North, the authors contend that KMb is most powerful when embedded in research from the outset, rather than added after the fact. Working within a knowledge democracy framework through the UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education, the paper explores how creative and arts-based methods have served as powerful vehicles for sharing research with communities, policymakers, and the broader public. Through four case studies—domestic workers in India using a hand-stitched saree to document sexual harassment; waste recyclers in Brazil producing participatory videos for policy advocacy; immigrant women in Toronto presenting through spoken word at City Hall; and a community health fair in rural South Africa the paper illustrates how art reaches people and places that conventional academic outputs cannot. The paper concludes that creativity is not decorative in KMb; it is essential, particularly when research aims at social transformation and meaningful community change.