The challenge of benchmarking community engagement: the AUCEA Pilot Project

In an environment increasingly driven by the need for an evidence base and accountability, there is pressure to identify measures of university community engagement. The Australian University Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA) recognised the need for the development of national and international benchmarks for engagement activity, the inclusion of engagement as a part of institutional profile assessments by government and as part of the AUQA assessment regime. The AUCEA benchmarking Pilot has collaboratively developed definitions, rationale and a set of goals, strategies and measures as a basis for benchmarking university community engagement. As the project enters a pilot phase where participating universities will populate the indicators using their own internal processes and a shared partner perception survey, many challenges will be faced. This paper outlines the process undertaken by the AUCEA benchmarking Project and the outcomes so far