Fostering Social Responsibility & Community Engagement in Higher Educational Institutions in India.

Abstract

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) can play an important role to achieve the objectives of socio-economic development of New India through their active community engagement. This approach will also contribute to improvements in quality of both teaching and research in HEIs as they will develop better understanding of issues confronting the society. Therefore, it would in the fitness of things, if HEIs bring in social responsibility and community in their vision and mission itself. It is also important that institutional mechanisms are developed to adopt a holistic and functional approach to community engagement, encompassing all the three functions of HEIs—teaching, research and service. UGC’s ambitious Quality Mandate launched in 2018 has focused on improvingsocietal linkages of HEIs and enabling students to become socially productive.