University Community Work (UCW) is one of the areas of social action of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). It involves interdisciplinary activities carried out by students and academic staff and the aim is to forge ties between the university and different sectors of the community from a dynamic and critical perspective.
UCW is a structural activity of UCR, since it is part of the University's Organic Statutes, according to which it is the duty of the university to carry out social initiatives. These activities include UCW projects, which must cover the different regions of the country in order to tackle both rural and urban problems.
The UCW projects carried out by the students have a teaching load of 300 hours and are part of the Humanities Syllabus Area at UCR. This syllabus area is composed of three subjects (General Studies, National Reality Seminars I and National Reality Seminars II) and UCW. Students undertake UCW once they have passed 50% of their course credits. This ensures that their projects are of a professional standard.
The programme has been run by UCR since 1975, and it is now compulsory at all state-funded universities in Costa Rica. The main changes that have occurred in the programme since it was introduced fall into two categories: extension and orientation. First, the different programmes now cover the whole of the country, and all the universities' academic units run UCW programmes or projects. Secondly, the UCW programme has moved on from an aid perspective, in which the projects were aimed at underprivileged social groups, to one of social intervention, in which the projects are the fruit of collaboration between universities and civil society.
Through universities, society makes a substantial investment in training professionals, who benefit personally (especially in the employment market) from their time at university. In , this investment goes mainly into the public sector, since 76.1% of new university students in 1997 enrolled in public universities.
University Community Work (Trabajo Comunal Universitario, TCU) represents an initial return on society’s investment in students. It also helps to raise students’ awareness of their country’s social problems.
TCU is one of the areas of social action of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). It involves interdisciplinary activities carried out by students and academic staff and the aim is to forge ties between the university and different sectors of the community from a dynamic and critical perspective.
TCU is a structural activity of the UCR, since it is part of the University’s Organic Statutes, according to which it is the duty of the University to carry out social initiatives throughout . These activities include TCU projects, which must cover the different regions of the country in order to tackle both rural and urban problems.
The TCU projects carried out by the students have a teaching load of 300 hours and are part of the Humanities Syllabus Area at the UCR. This syllabus area is composed of three subjects (General Studies, National Reality Seminars I and National Reality Seminars II) and TCU. Students undertake TCU once they have passed 50% of their course credits. This ensures that their projects are of a professional standard.
The programme has been run by the UCR since 1975, and it is now compulsory at all state-funded universities in . The main changes that have occurred in the programme since it was introduced fall into two categories: extension and orientation. Firstly, the different programmes now cover the whole of the country, and all the universities’ academic units run TCU programmes or projects. Secondly, the TCU programme has moved on from an aid perspective, in which the projects were aimed at underprivileged social groups, to one of social intervention, in which the projects are the fruit of collaboration between universities and civil society.
The aim of the UCW programme is to:
Contribute to the development of Costa Rican society.
Reintegrate the social benefit of university education with services that benefit community development.
Develop the social awareness of students and lecturers by raising their awareness of national and international problems.
The academic units are responsible for designing, carrying out and coordinating the projects. However, the Vice-Rectorate of Social Action must approve projects presented by the academic units according to the following criteria:
The projects must be in keeping with the educational profile of the academic units to ensure that teaching and research is consistent with service to society.
The projects must be sustainable, that is, they should involve short, medium and long-term planning so that their impact on the institution or community can be foreseen and evaluated.
Consideration must be given to the projects' social relevance, that is, whether the projects respond to the needs, proposals and concerns of UCR and the community.
The projects must be interdisciplinary in nature: problems should be tackled from different perspectives and it should be possible to incorporate various disciplines in the planning and implementation stages.
The beneficiaries of the projects must be involved in the planning and implementation stages.
UCW must involve lecturers and students to ensure that the objectives are met and that the experience is an academic one.
The academic units are responsible for the collaboration agreements with communities and civil society organisations and for monitoring the projects. The Vice-Rectorate is not involved in any of these processes.
However, it is the duty of the Vice-Rectorate to support all the academic units and provide them with a current budget, technical advice and services such as transport. The Vice-Rectorate is also in charge of student enrollment and of assessing the reports that project supervisors must submit on a yearly basis, as well as the reports submitted by students upon the completion of their projects.
TCU is currently part of 98% of the UCR’s courses. This means that 110 projects are currently being carried out in . At least one community or civil society organisation is involved in each project, giving the UCR close ties with Costa Rican society and the country’s organisations.
In 2005, students and lecturers devoted 585,000 hours to TCU.
The UCR, private donors and public administration bodies invest an annual total of €84,638 in TCU.
If we are to develop a programme that is similar to TCU, we must consider taking the following steps:
Promoting the community work programme within the institution and submitting it for discussion as many times as is necessary.
Drawing up a pilot plan to show that the programme is feasible and to adapt the experience to the specific conditions of the institution and to the social context, and assessing the initial results once the pilot plan has ended.
Involving the institution to ensure the feasibility of the project. This is an essential measure, and in the case of TCU, the political involvement of the University helps make community work a requisite for students’ graduation.
Allocating an overall budget for the management and organisation of the projects. This is again an essential measure, given the size of the programme, since individual funds for each project could have a negative effect on their quality.
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