Volunteer Organizations and Higher Education: Civic Engagement, Poverty, and Student Support in Germany and Japan

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 2
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Higher Education in a Changing World: Civic Engagement, Globalization, and Student Agency Across Societies

Proposal

This paper examines the role of volunteer organizations in higher education institutions in Germany and Japan, focusing on how they shape students’ civic engagement and provide support to students in need. While German universities host a wide range of political and religious organizations that promote activism, social events, and civic education, Japanese campuses maintain stricter boundaries, keeping political and religious groups at a distance. Instead, in Japan volunteer initiatives have emerged at the city and university level, particularly in response to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when foodbanks were set up to address widespread but largely hidden student food insecurity. This comparative study highlights how cultural norms and institutional contexts shape the involvement of volunteer organizations in higher education and the ways in which students encounter social issues through these activities.
The research is using conceptual framework of social anchoring (Grzymala-Kazlowska, 2018) and civic voluntarism model (Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). These frameworks inform the research questions by directing attention to how voluntary organizations provide students with both material support and opportunities for civic participation, and how students’ engagement with these organizations reflects broader societal attitudes toward poverty, religion, and politics.
Data collection and analysis are shaped by both prior scholarship and empirical gaps. Previous research on higher education and volunteerism has primarily addressed Western contexts, paying less attention to the role of grassroots volunteer organizations in East Asia, and cross-national comparative perspectives remain underdeveloped. To address these gaps, I use a mixed-methods design: semi-structured interviews with student participants, charity volunteers and university staff, complemented by an online survey administered to students in both countries. The survey identifies broader patterns of student engagement with volunteer groups, while the interviews shed light on their deeper motives, experiences, and the cultural framing of poverty and activism.
The integration of qualitative and quantitative findings allows triangulation across different types of evidence. For example, survey data on student participation in volunteer organizations in Germany is contextualized through interview accounts of how such groups combine social events with civic education. In Japan, quantitative findings on the prevalence of food insecurity are enriched by qualitative narratives illustrating the stigma associated with poverty and the cultural shock generated by university-level foodbank initiatives.
This project makes an original contribution by comparing two contrasting cases of how voluntary organizations intersect with higher education. It reveals that while students in Germany often encounter civic education through politically or religiously affiliated groups, their peers in Japan become aware of societal issues through crisis-driven initiatives that challenge dominant narratives of affluence. By bringing these perspectives together, the research highlights how volunteer organizations act not only as providers of support but also as mediators of civic learning and societal reflection.
The findings demonstrate how higher education institutions can collaborate with voluntary organizations to foster student resilience and civic engagement. At a time when global crises increasingly expose student vulnerabilities, the study offers insights into the role of voluntary organizations in shaping socially responsive universities.

Author

• Polina Ivanova, University of Bremen