Promoting Students' Civic Responsibilities through Community Engagement at Higher Education Institutions

Students are to be educated and prepared for engaging with communities. The term "community engagement" refers to activities to work collaboratively with and through groups of people to address issues affecting the social well-being of those people (Woronkowicz, 2018). Citizen participation is assumed to result in decisions that are better than could have been made with no involvement of community member (Ianniello et al. 2019). Higher education institutions promoting students' social and civic responsibilities through community engagement contribute to the socio-economic development of the country (Maistry, Thakrar, 2012, 65). At the same time, students and faculty benefit from applying their knowledge and skills to real world problems, which has been shown to have positive impacts on student academic performance, civic engagement, self-efficacy and self-esteem, and leadership capacity (Hahn et al., 2020). Therefore, the course "Participation Management: tools for citizen engagement and community empowerment" was created while implementing HEIsCITI project ("Higher Education Institutions as Innovative Triggers of Sustainable Development in European Cities in Post Covid-19 Era" (KA220-HED-96EB51E1)). The methodology is developed to prepare students for community engagement practice. The study aims at revealing students' opinion on piloted university study course "Participation Management: tools for citizen engagement and community empowerment". JEL Codes: I23, I25, Z13 Keywords: community engagement, participation management, students, university, Lithuania