STATUS OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITIES OF MAHARASHTRA

Indian education has transformed at a rapid speed in recent years but are we only creating a human being who set out in the job market after her/his higher education? Do we need to sensitize our students to collaboration and engagement to develop our country socially and economically? What are practices that have been conducted in past to keep the people in the community intact and why now there is a need for such initiatives as trying to bring people together for the development of the society? There is a need to ponder over the issues related to human development in Indian society and how we can tackle that being as one. Community engagement in higher education can help increase access to learning opportunities boost student retention, promote optimism among teachers and improve attendance rates of students at Higher Educational institutes. Academic and social engagement can be used to motivate students to get involved with their curricula and other campus activities. Through this research effort researcher highlights the Community Engagement policies and practices in the Universities of Maharashtra. Further this study goes ahead to identify best and innovative practices by investigating practices of University community engagement. This study helps to promote community engagement through forming policy and delivering effective practices with implementation strategy. For Universities community engagement it will establish significance on how to enhance bond between universities and community for social and economic change to contribute to the public good