Realizing Reciprocity in Community-University Partnerships When Addressing Complex Societal Issues

Abstract In this study, we focus on engaged education as a means of exploring how reciprocity can be manifested through Community-University Partnerships (CUPs) and contribute to the universities’ third mission. Reciprocity, characterized by mutual benefit and active collaboration between universities and communities, is foundational to CUPs in engaged education. However, realizing reciprocity in CUPs becomes particularly challenging when addressing complex societal issues – being multifaceted, dynamic, and which require long-term commitment – as curricular activities are traditionally monodisciplinary, and short-term in nature. This paper presents the findings of three years of action research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, exploring how reciprocity can be realized in CUPs addressing complex issues. Three CUP-Approaches emerged: course-driven, partner-driven, and theme-driven, each leveraging specific strategies – complexity reduction and flexible deliverables, iterative learning, knowledge accumulation and integration. These strategies fostered transactional reciprocity by delivering tangible outcomes for all stakeholders involved and supported transformational reciprocity by transforming CUP processes and outcomes, and participants’ perspectives on the complex issue. Our findings highlight the importance of aligning CUP structures with the interconnected and long-term nature of complex issues. This study contributes to the increasing demand on universities to purposefully address complex societal issues through engaged education practices.