Barter, Derek and Hyland, Sinead (2020) The ComMUniversity: A review of the Communiversity: The University for All 2020. Project Report. Maynooth University. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Communiversity is a three-way partnership between Maynooth University (MU); community based organisations (in the form Local Development Companies (LDCs) and Local LEADER Partnership Companies 1(LLPCs)); and the Public Library Service. At its inception each stakeholder approached their involvement with different aims and policy demands in mind but with a common objective. This objective then, as it remains to the present,is to engage people, for whom Higher Education appears distant, alien and unobtainable,in a university level course in a secure and familiar environment for personal development and capacity buildingat a community level. Theaimsfor each partner then as now were for Maynooth University towards widening participation and engaging communities beyond the campus; for the Library Council and later individual County and City Librarians to develop the library as a focal point for learning and to try to attract non-library users. And finally,for the Community Partners as agents for Social Inclusion for disadvantaged groups and individuals in terms of employment, health and education it is an initiative that meets many of their needs in terms of adult educational provision. Within these varying aims there exists much overlap and scope for cooperation. This review is an attempt to describe the standing of the Communiversity as it was up to12 March 2020. It will try to capture its origins within the context of the ‘economic crash’ in the years immediately following the Banking Crisis and the possibilities for its future development as a community based democratic educational initiative. In an era where loneliness and isolation in older aged people and knowledge of poor mental health and its associated problems are becoming more widespread among the general population the idea of social prescribing has taken hold. The Communiversity could be one elementin this fight against these Western maladies by bringing people back together in a learning environment where curiosity and a willingness to participate at a level commensurate with the person’s own needs and capabilities are the only requirementsfor success. Anything else that comes out of itis a bonus.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Keywords:	ComMUniversity; review; Communiversity; University for All; 2020;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Adult and Community Education
Item ID:	13561
Depositing User:	Derek Barter
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2020 16:22
Publisher:	Maynooth University
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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