An Analysis Of The University's Function Of Community Engagement

Over the last few decades,world economies have evolved to knowledge economies,whereby the economies in developed countries have become driven by technologies based on knowledge production.In their role as knowledge producers,universities are therefore increasingly recognised as playing a fundamental part in supporting regional and national growth.For this reason,universities today are continually expanding to encompass engagement with their local,regional,national or international communities for the purpose of knowledge creation and dissemination.As a result,university-community engagement has advanced as a robust field of scholarship and practice that now bears ever-increasing recognition among scholars.However,despite the recognition of university-community engagement,there exists a lack of information on how universities carry out their engagement activities,and the extent to which support is accorded to university-community engagement by both university administration and the government.Therefore,using a case study method,this study sought to explore how universitycommunity engagement is carried out by Nanjing Agricultural University(NAU)on one hand,and Kenyatta University(KU)on the other.NAU has a history of over 110 years,and is a pioneer of modern agricultural education in China.NAU,which is ranked number 9 in the Best Global Universities for Agricultural Sciences,has also in particular,made tremendous contributions to agricultural research and knowledge in China and has a component of community engagement.On the other hand,studies in Kenya have shown that community members have a positive perception towards university-community engagement,and are willingly engaging with university for new knowledge.Kenyatta University(KU)is one of the universities in Kenya that has shown interest in agriculture and similarly has a component of community engagement.The study focuses on:university purpose(mission,leadership and communication)towards university-community engagement;and the process or engagement activities being carried out as initiatives of university-community engagement.The study also focuses on funding as the support that is accorded by the government,and also in terms of how the university allocates funds to support knowledge creation and dissemination.The results revealed that in terms of university mission,leadership,and communication,both NAU and KU are committed and oriented towards universitycommunity engagement as a core function.The study also shows that both universities have a positive trend in knowledge transfer;specifically,through publication and attendance to conferences.The number of patents were minimal for KU but noticeable for NAU.The publications,awards for excellence,research cooperation as well as new research institutions were higher in NAU than KU.On the other hand,conference attendance for KU was consistently higher than that of NAU for the four years between 2014 and 2017.The study concluded that the higher performance of NAU in most parameters was most likely as a result of higher funding and incentives that NAU enjoys compared to its Kenyan counterpart.This supports our hypothesis that government policies such as funding and incentives have a significant effect on a university's research creation,dissemination and engagement.The study also concluded that university purpose(mission,leadership,and communication),as well as government policy are crucial ingredients for research and community engagement,supporting our hypothesis.This study,therefore,concluded that there are lessons to be learned from NAU by KU and other universities and recommended suitable government policies such as funding and incentives for better research creation and community engagement.In addition,university purpose(mission,leadership,and communication)has to promote university-community engagement.Finally,the study recommends further enquiry on the relationship between the level of funding and publications as well as an impact assessment to evaluate the ultimate effect of higher research output on farming.