9 Irish Campuses Recognized for Participation in Carnegie Classification Pilot

by Dr. John Saltmarsh, Swearer Center Distinguished Scholar in Residence
September 28, 2017

On Sept. 15, 2017, at a keynote session of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement annual conference held in Galway, Ireland, nine Irish campuses that participated in a two-year project piloting the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification were recognized for their participation by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

This project was the first pilot study of the Elective Community Engagement Classification outside of the United States higher education sector.  The pilot was part of a continued national process to find appropriate tools to build an evidence-base of Irish higher education institution’s contribution to civic and community engagement that aligns with the national higher education policy context, and an opportunity to inform a process underway to develop an international Community Engagement Classification.

Participating campuses that were recognized at the conference include the Institute of Technology Tralee, University College Cork, University Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of Limerick, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Athlone Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin (pictured), the University of Dublin, TU4Dublin Alliance and the National University of Ireland Galway.

This pilot project was supported by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Community Engagement Classification in partnership with the Community Knowledge Initiative at NUI Galway, the Talloires Network, and University of Massachusetts Boston. The project was led by Dr. John Saltmarsh and Dr. Elaine Ward, both of whom are Visiting Scholars with the Swearer Center at Brown University, in partnership with Lorraine McIlrath, based at NUI Galway. The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is housed at the Swearer Center at Brown University.