ABSTRACT
Why is there an increasing interest in community and community involvement in the UK? In considering community primarily in terms of the ideas of communitarianism (Frazer, 1999a; Arthur, 2000), I want to analyse what role it can play in developing an education for democratic citizenship in higher education. This challenge to higher education in the UK to provide curriculum innovation which can encourage undergraduates to develop the values of social responsibility through volunteering will be seen in the context of the rethinking of higher education which has followed from the ‘Dearing Commission’ review of UK higher education. This will also involve examining whether or not ‘service learning’ or ‘community-based learning’ can provide a basis for constructing curriculum innovations which can provide learning for democratic citizenship in higher education. This will involve considering the growth of service learning in the USA and in the UK where its recent development has been influenced by US higher education. Finally, I want to consider what challenges this provides for the future of higher education in the UK.
