The third visit of the SHEFCE project was held at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels on 9-11th March
2022, involving around 20 participants representing the different partners institutions from Ireland,
Croatia, Spain, Belgium and Austria: Universitat de Girona, University in Rijeka, Institute for the
Development of Education, Technological University Dublin, Donau University Krems, Ghent
University and ACUP-GUNi.
The aim of the visit, hosted by the VUB Science and Outreach Office and framed as a training
activity, was for participants to learn about community engagement in higher education in specific
contexts (and its assessment). Visiting participants attended the visit as "critical friends" to ask further
questions about university"s community engagement, their institutional report and the findings of their
self-reflection.
The SHEFCE peer-learning visit included discussions in parallel thematic focus groups about
community engagement in practice and an introduction to the vision and mission of OpenLab, which is
a VUB/ULB initiative that creates an in-between, transformative open space for university and societal
actors to meet and experiment. The visit also included an introduction to La Serre, a community
project based on an hybrid space with a large shared workshop for artists and a hangar that hosts
unsold food processing activities, repair workshops and socio-cultural events.
Presentations from the visit, as well as a report (in the form of a peer reflection by the visiting team) is
available on https://www.shefce.eu/meetings