The Campus Engage Network was established in 2007 to harness and promote civic engagement activities within Irish HEIs. The initiative has been funded for three years by the Irish government through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Strategic Innovation Fund 1 (SIF), totaling 1.4 million Euro.

The founding institutions are Dublin City University, University of Limerick, National University of Ireland Maynooth, National University of Ireland Galway (lead partner) and University College Dublin. 

It is envisaged that Campus Engage will become the national platform where HEIs on the island of Ireland can collaborate to support civic engagement opportunities (volunteering, community-based learning, service-learning, mentoring and so on).

The principal objective of the network is to increase the number of opportunities (both formal and informal) students have to engage with their communities through civic activities while in higher education.

Resources and events

Campus Engage will generate resources which will include:

• A database of best practice in the area of volunteering, community-based learning and other civic engagement activities in Irish higher education;
• A community of practitioners that have implemented civic engagement activities and are willing to share their expertise and experience;
• A set of books, papers and guides to help institutes of higher education to develop and manage civic engagement activities.

In addition, the network will organise a range of seminars hosted by the founding institutions, with a range of national and international guest speakers, and training workshops for institutions interested in enabling activities on their campus.

If you would like to find out more about the network as it develops, log onto www.campusengage.ie.