Every few years, Australia produces a new higher education review or strategy that shapes university funding, regulation, and direction for the following decade. These documents are important — they reflect national priorities, allocate public resources, and signal to universities what the government values. And for most of their history, they have said remarkably little about community engagement.
That omission is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. As universities face growing questions about their social licence — their legitimacy in the eyes of the public — and as Australia grapples with complex challenges that require the university sector’s full contribution, the case for embedding community engagement in national higher education policy has never been stronger.
The Social Licence Question
Public trust in universities has been tested in recent years by debates about research integrity, international student revenue, executive salaries, and questions about whether universities are delivering value for the billions of dollars of public investment they receive. In this environment, demonstrating genuine community benefit is not just a nice thing to do — it is an existential priority.
Community engagement is one of the most compelling ways universities can demonstrate their social value. When a university’s researchers are working alongside local communities to address real problems, when its students are contributing to community organisations, when its facilities are open to the public and its expertise is accessible to those who need it — these are visible, tangible demonstrations that public investment is generating public benefit.
What Higher Education Policy Currently Says
Current Australian higher education policy recognises two primary missions of universities: teaching and research. The language of “third mission” — the university’s role in contributing directly to society and economy beyond teaching and research — appears occasionally in policy documents but has never been given the structural recognition it deserves. There is no national framework for measuring community engagement, no funding stream that explicitly supports it, and no regulatory requirement to report on it.
This is in contrast to some comparable countries. The United Kingdom’s Research Excellence Framework explicitly includes community impact as a component of research assessment, with significant funding consequences. The United States has longstanding federal programs supporting community engagement in higher education. Several European countries have formal recognition mechanisms for engaged universities. Australia lags behind.
What a Community Engagement Policy Framework Should Include
A serious national policy framework for community engagement in higher education would need several components. First, a common definition and taxonomy — making clear what counts as community engagement and what doesn’t, so that institutions can report consistently and comparisons are meaningful. Second, a national data collection mechanism — enabling government and the sector to understand the scale and character of community engagement activity across Australian universities. Third, institutional reporting requirements — requiring universities to account publicly for their community engagement activities and outcomes as part of the regulatory compact they enter into as receivers of public funding.
Perhaps most importantly, it would need to address funding and incentives. Research is incentivised through competitive grants and performance-based funding. Teaching is incentivised through student load and completion metrics. Community engagement is largely not incentivised at all — which is why, despite abundant goodwill, it remains underdeveloped relative to its potential. A serious policy framework would create funding streams that support community engagement as a distinct institutional activity, and promotion and recognition mechanisms that make community engagement a viable career path for academic staff.
The Opportunity in the Next Policy Cycle
As Australia’s next higher education review approaches, there is an opportunity to make community engagement a central, not peripheral, theme. The case is straightforward: Australia faces major challenges — climate change adaptation, regional disadvantage, social cohesion, workforce transformation — that cannot be solved without the sustained, engaged contribution of its university sector. Unlocking that contribution requires policy settings that recognise, resource, and reward it.
The universities are ready. Many have made significant investments in community engagement infrastructure and are demonstrating impressive impact. What they need is a national policy framework that validates and amplifies that work — and holds all institutions, not just the willing ones, to account for their community contribution.