Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Educational policy has an influence on the ideal society and hinges on the output that citizens contribute to the greater good. Without governance in education there is no policy and in most cases curriculum and set pedagogy fails. This paper explores university community engagement (CE) policy and how it is articulated in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. It is imperative to note that CE policy development and implementation is richer if it is evidence based. This paper therefore explores the implementation of university CE policy in higher education gathering from instructions from the White Paper of 1997. The paper also investigates on the structure of university CE policy in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) and explores the main constructs that build these policies and how they are structured. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, the study explores the similarities and differences between university community engagement in the main three types of institutions found in KwaZulu Natal. The study is therefore significant in that it analyses the engagement polices in KZN and seeks to find a common hub for university CE that relates to the institutional and cultural architecture of the region and university.