A critical review of policy and management rationales for volunteer involvement in UK Higher Education Institutions.

• In Event: The managerial way? Nonprofit service provision in a marketized context

Abstract

Introduction
Volunteer involvement in UK universities is ubiquitous, diverse, and complex, suggesting high levels of hybridity (Billis and Rochester 2020), with Higher Education Institutions as public sector bodies also acting as volunteer involving organisations and volunteering infrastructure organisations (Grotz and Leonard 2022). This presents substantive policy and management issues regarding the relationships between universities and their students, staff, alumni, the public, as well as other public and voluntary sector organisations (Grotz 2023).

Purpose of the paper
This paper will critically discuss volunteer involvement as a substantive policy and management issue, addressing tensions of creating and sustaining effective university-community relations.

A short summary locating the concern within a wider literature
The history (Brewis 2014), practice (Student Volunteering England 2004, Brewis et al 2010) and impact (Donahue and Russell 2009, Braime and Ruohonen 2011) of volunteer involvement of students at English universities has been extensively explored. The involvement of staff through employer supported volunteering (Percy and Rogers 2021, Woodard et al 2023), alumni (Acitelli 2020) and the public, for example, through patient and public involvement (Grotz et al 2020) have also received attention but arguably not through a paradigm of volunteer involvement but rather as staff development and management or fundraising through alumni and engagement of the public (Owen et al 2016, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, 2023).
Today, university funding in England increasingly requires universities to maximise their positive impact for students and the public, including also evidencing public benefit of research. In turn, this is requiring them to strategically plan for creating and sustaining effective university-community relations. This creates management tensions between the key objectives of a university as a public sector organisation with a focus on research and teaching, to which funding is also tied, and the newly required impact related activities including volunteer involvement which are more akin to the activities of voluntary organisations as volunteer involving organisations. Similar tensions have been explored in a range of relationships in societies around the globe (see for example Suykens et al 2022, Yu and Chen 2018). In the UK these tensions are not uniformly addressed by the management of universities and offer distinct and ongoing management and policy challenges which can be observed by the diverse practices of volunteer involvement at universities across the UK. Drawing on theory by Rochester (2013), which challenges the dominant paradigm of volunteer involvement in England, and citing contemporary practice examples from websites of UK Higher Education Institutions, this paper will critically assess policy and management practices influencing the role of volunteer involvement in creating and sustaining effective university-community relations as a strategic goal.
Conclusion
The paper suggests that volunteer involvement at universities requires principled, theory driven management based on knowledge, data, and evidence, as well as educational, research and practical skills, and systematic and strategic planning. In conclusion, the paper offers accessible insights into how volunteer involvement can enhance universities’ societal impact by improving levels of inclusion, strengthening teaching, and evidencing the difference research makes to communities.

References

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Author

• Jurgen Grotz, Institute for Volunteering Research