Do student volunteers benefit from community engagement?

Abstract

Community engagement is enriching and empowering for the recipient or host community. There is transfer of knowledge and sometimes economic or social benefits. While a lot of research has been conducted to assess the benefits of community engagement to the host community, little progress has covered the implications for the students participating in university community engagement. This paper discusses the findings of community engagement programme in Orang Asli Settlement in Kuala Gandah, Pahang. The objective of the research is to investigate the impact of community engagement programme to the student participants who were enrolled in Economics of Social Policy course at the postgraduate masters' level. Students' response to their level of academic performance, life skills, civic and social responsibility and personal development was assessed with a pre and post test questionnaire. Their response was based on the Likert scale of 1-10. Results were tabled and calculated for percent increase in knowledge based on the gap analysis method.