Managing University-Community Engagement (UCE): The Case of UUM
Fathiyyah Abu Bakar1, Zakiyah Sharif2, Zaimah Abdullah3
1Fathiyyah Abu Bakar, Tunku PuteriIntan Safinaz School of Accountancy (TISSA-UUM),UUM College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah
2Zakiyah Sharif, Tunku PuteriIntan Safinaz School of Accountancy (TISSA-UUM),UUM College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah
3Zaimah Abdullah, Tunku PuteriIntan Safinaz School of Accountancy (TISSA-UUM),UUM College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah
Manuscript received on 08 June 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 13 June 2019 | Manuscript Published on 08 July 2019 | PP: 199-205 | Volume-8 Issue-8S3 June 2019 | Retrieval Number: H10590688S319/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open-access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Nowadays, the debate on university community engagement (UCE) has received a huge attention by many parties and can be considered as high profile issue over the academic world. The UCE is considered as one of the university’s mechanisms in discharging its social responsibility to its nearby community. University is highly recommended to embed community engagement responsibility into the university’s policy as part of theitscommitment to improve the well-being of society surrounding the campus. The objectives of this study are to describe the process of managing UCE activities at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) and to identifyfactors, challenges and benefits of engaging in the activities. To achieve these objectives, twelve respondents have been interviewed and a number of UCE documents have been reviewed. The findings of this study reveal that the social activities at UUM excel beyond the philanthropic activities and have been progressed from short term program towards the long term engagement programs. The UCE activities have shown a good progress in term of its planning and implementation. However, UUM may need to take a consideration on how to overcome the challenges they may face such as lack of financial resources and inefficiency in managing UCE As such, the findings of this study provide a new insight of the management process for a highereducation institution to engage with the good UCE programs. However, one size does not fit all. Therefore, a future study could be conducted using multiple case studies that may help to gain more understanding of the university’s commitment towards UCE programs.
Keywords: University-Community Engagement, Case Study, University, Management Process
Scope of the Article: Disaster Management