Civic and community engagement impact relates to the benefit higher education makes to society.
Campus Engage offer the following supportive framework for all Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to set about planning, measuring, or collecting information on impact. The purpose is to assist HEIs to set baseline figures, or key performance indicators and is non-prescriptive, just a supportive Guideline.
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Student Volunteering
Higher education student volunteering is the commitment of time and energy for the benefit of society, the environment or individuals outside one’s immediate family.
This web page provides information on measuring and evaluating student volunteering.
The dimensions reflect the Campus Engage Charter, mirror the Campus Engage activities, and acknowledge the broader institutional initiatives which build and support a culture of engagement.
There are a number of indicators of qualitative and quantitative evidence of impact, some of which are provided below.
Evidence and Impact
Quantitative Data:
- Numeric data, figures, percentages, proportions
- Monetary amounts, funds, budgets
- Targets, projections, estimations
- Comparisons, benchmarks
- Data analytics
- Grants, awards
- Participant, audience, visitor involvement
- Test/exam results
- Workload/time allocation
- Attitudinal surveys
Qualitative Data:
- Case studies, including impact
- Contextual information: what, where, why, who and how of engagement
- Demographic details: communities and audiences
- Institutional documentation: strategies, plans, policies, reports
- Partnership agreements/guidelines/compacts
- Resources/materials/toolkits/websites/templates
- Stories of impact from students, staff and communities
- Measures of Esteem/Feedback: Evaluations from students, staff, communities
- Attitudinal surveys
- Interviews/focus groups
- Blogs, video, audio, podcasts
- Awards
- Reports
- Participant stories and narratives
- Process details and charts
- Reflective writings
Possible Metrics
Provide data and examples (e.g. statistics/numbers/case studies/stories) on/of:
- Percentage of students who volunteer
- Social media metrics related to student volunteering
- Number of organisations affiliated to student volunteering/ hosting student volunteers
- Total number of hours students volunteer
- Average number of hours students volunteer per week
- Monetary value of hours donated (use the Volunteer Investment and Value Audit (VIVA) tool)
- Percentage of student volunteers who receive institutional volunteering awards
- Percentage of students who report improved/enhanced graduate attributes through volunteering: communication, team work, IT, higher order thinking skills; analysis, understanding complex problems, career awareness skills, technical skills etc.
- Percentage of students who report improved/enhanced personal attributes: wellbeing, self-esteem, empowerment, respect for others, civic responsibility, local/global citizenship etc
- Qualitative impact of volunteering on student learning outcomes: case studies/ stories of how volunteering enhanced student learning
- Number, and impact, of training programmes delivered to promote and advance student volunteering good practice; number of participants who attended
- Institutional budget/staff dedicated to support volunteering
- Protocols/procedures/guidelines on how students are selected, trained, and supported
- Percentage of students who would recommend volunteering or their volunteer experience
- Percentage of hosting organisations who report positive experience working with student volunteers, perception of work done by volunteers
- Percentage of students reporting enhanced social networks
- Statistics on retention of volunteers
- Charitable actions: number of institutional and partner fundraising events, number of attendees, amount raised.
