ABSTRACT
One of the barriers we have tried to understand-if not to overcome-in this project has been the differential experience of universities in the developed and the developing world: of the contrast between “North” and “South.” The centre of gravity of relevant existing scholarship (in English) in the area is fi rmly in the former. The dominant discourse is one of higher education as serving the community by “being there” (Watson, 2007: 132-134), of developing character and the instincts of democratic citizenship (including through “volunteering” and service learning), and of receiving in return moral and economic support for the other two legs (besides such “service”) of university missions: those of teaching and research.
