An Analysis On The University-Community Partnerships

The theory and practice of the university-community partnerships first appeared in1980s in the United States. Over the past years, a great of theoretical achievements and practical experiences had been achieved in this area. The university-community cooperation has not been done effectively in China. This paper tries to discuss the university-community partnership systematically using the existing theory and experience. Specifically, this paper consists of five parts.First, it defines the related concepts of the university-community partnership. It identifies the concept of partnership, universities and communities. And then it suggests forming the lasting and solid relationship between them in the principles of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity in a cooperative way. In addition, it also has specific subjects and objects in the university-community partnership.Second, it describes the motivations for the university-community partnership. The partnership is based on the resources complementary and mutual benefits between university and community. It points out that the resource complementary can promote their cooperation, and the win-win outcomes are motives for their cooperation.Third, it describes three types of the university-community partnership in the perspective of university, including teaching partnerships, research partnerships and service partnerships. Each type has its distinctive methods of cooperation. In general, universities and communities establish teaching partnerships by service-learning and training in the communities, establish research partnerships by engaged scholarship and community-based research, and establish service partnerships by volunteering and consulting service.Fourth, universities and communities should abide by some basic principles which guarantee the successful cooperation. It includes principle of commonality, principle of respect, principle of complementarities, principle of sharing, principle of openness, principle of feedback, and principle of cyclicity.Fifth, it describes the mechanism of the university-community partnership. It points out that universities should combine partnership with courses and researches in order to encourage both parties to cooperate. In addition, human and material resources should be given and specific organization should be set up so as to maintain the successful partnership. When the partnership project is over, universities should evaluate the missions, objects, processes and results of the project.