2022 Winter Forum: Universities and their communities

Higher education institutions don’t operate in a vacuum: they are connected through their activities and interests to a wide range of actors with a stake in what they do and how they do it. Indeed, service to society has long been considered one of the core functions of higher education, alongside education and research, and universities typically have strong links with their local and national communities, with whom they share physical space and close cultural, social and economic ties.

As internationalisation becomes more embedded in the fabric of higher education institutions across Europe and beyond, in what ways do universities’ international activities and orientations intersect with – and ideally enrich – their community engagement approaches and service to society agendas? This issue of Forum magazine endeavours to explore that very question from a variety of perspectives.