Between June 25-28, the University of Bucharest organized and hosted the 2024 edition of European Forum on Service Learning, as an activity within the ERASMUS+ KA 2 project entitled: Service-Learning: Intersectoral Collaboration Practices for the development of students´ soft skills and socially engaged universities (SL-ICP).
More than 80 participants took part in the event (of which 56 were foreign participants, from 4 countries: France, Spain, Greece, Italy), targeting three categories of stakeholders – teachers, students and civil society representatives. The main objective of the event was to share the practices of implementing service-learning in the community (service-learning / SL), allowing the exchange of practices and the transfer of innovation.
The forum proposed 10 interactive working sessions to the participants
The agenda of the event included 10 interactive work sessions, in which each partner had the role of moderator. Together with the University of Bucharest, representatives of: EURASIA Net (project coordinator), Aix-Marseille University, Autonomous University of Madrid, National And Kapodistrian University of Athens, Sapienza University of Rome were workshop facilitators.
The main topics addressed were: the presentation of individual and institutional experiences of community involvement, the presentation of the community involvement guide, the presentation of 10 SL projects implemented in the 5 countries and the choice of a distinction for SL projects.
The team of the University of Bucharest, coordinated by the vice-rector prof. PhD Magdalena Platis, participated with two SL projects implemented at the Faculty of Chemistry, in the course of the vice-dean lecturer PhD Delia-Laura Popescu: Chemistry Goes Outdoors and at the Faculty of Baptist Theology, with the involvement of the dean prof. PhD Otniel Ioan Bunaciu and the vice-dean, lecturer PhD Mihai Ciopașiu: Reading Caravan.
Also, during this international forum, the participants contributed to the completion of the Guidebook on Service-Learning, a document intended to support other universities to integrate service-learning into their different training models. The guide promotes the idea that the higher education system should allow students to get involved in addressing social and environmental issues, and universities should also promote student involvement and strengthen their cooperation with civil society organizations and institutions in their territories.
The event agenda can be consulted here and the project page here.