Improving Good Working Relationships Between Communities and Universities Through Community Engagement with Reference to the University of Venda

Abstract

The paper aims to assess good working relationships between communities and universities through community engagement. Collaborative partnerships between communities and universities are increasingly important in addressing societal challenges. However, tensions and power imbalances often characterise such relationships. The lack of good working relationships between communities and universities often leads to failure to achieve mutual goals, impeding progress toward positive social change. The paper employed a desktop research approach and relied heavily on secondary data and previous literature, including accredited journals, books, statutory reports, and documents generated by government entities. From the literature, authors derived findings such as lack of capacity building, legal and ethical considerations, cultural sensitivity, power imbalance, resource constraints, communication barriers, trust building, measuring impact, recognition and credit, poor participation, and sustainability. Therefore, this paper recommends policy and institutional frameworks, community-university relationships, awareness and communication, utilisation of resources, collaboration and partnership, accountability, capacity building, sufficient budget, and evaluation be the central pillars of interventions that might create good working relationships between the university and communities. The results of this study provide a crucial guiding framework that the university can use to design effective, engaged scholarship programmes that are inclusive, sustainable, and mutually beneficial for all parties involved.