The voices of rural school youth on Higher Education community engagement partnerships

Abstract

Higher education institutions have been mandated by government to engage in community development projects and partner with local communities. This was done in order for the higher education institutions to reconsider the role the play in local communities and redress some of the injustices that occurred during the apartheid era. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of young people from a rural school on higher education community engagement partnership. The participants were made up of 31 young people from a rural school in Mpumalanga and had been involved in a community engagement partnership with a higher education institution. The young people were provided with a platform to share their experiences using PRA activities and the data generated was analysed using deductive thematic analysis. The young people expressed what they think the purpose for the partnership was, how they benefitted from the partnership and indicated what should be changed for future partnerships as well as suggestions to improve the partnership.