- Posted on 25 Aug 2026
Last week, UTS launched the Community Engagement Charter 2026–2030, a university-wide commitment to strengthening how we work alongside communities to create positive social impact.
Co-designed with community partners, students and staff, the Charter sets out the principles, values and practical actions that will guide community engagement across the university over the next five years.
Its premise is straightforward: communities are not solely recipients of positive impact by universities, but partners in shaping it.
Meaningful community engagement is built on relationships. It requires trust, respect, reciprocity and a shared commitment to creating positive change.
As part of this commitment, UTS will contribute at least 150,000 hours of volunteer effort that responds to community-identified priorities, over the life of the charter.
The target reflects an ambition to deepen community engagement over time, while prioritising quality, reciprocity and impact alongside scale.
One of the things I think is so fundamental to this work is this question of whose knowledge is valued and whose voices are heard … we can create benefit to the community organisation, but we are then educating and supporting students to work in the community sector, with and for the community sector.
Meaningful engagement requires more than goodwill. It depends on trust, mutual respect and a willingness to learn from one another. It values lived experience alongside academic knowledge and recognises communities as partners in shaping solutions.
The new Charter articulates a shared vision for what good community engagement looks like across UTS. It moves community engagement from something that happens in individual pockets across the university to a collective responsibility shared across the institution.
Community engagement in action
Community engagement is already a defining feature of many initiatives across UTS. The Charter brings this work together under a shared vision, helping to strengthen consistency, support collaboration and amplify impact across the university.
Examples of community engagement already happening at UTS include:
- For three decades, UTS Shopfront has connected students, academics and community organisations to deliver projects that create mutual benefit and lasting impact.
- Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research works closely with First Nations communities, including:
- The Legal Strategies Hub Research and Practice, which identifies areas of the Australian legal system that deny justice for Aboriginal communities and works with stakeholders to support meaningful change
- The Cultural Resilience Hub, which promotes and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sovereignty and Self-determination through innovative practices in media, storytelling and the arts.
- The UTS Social Impact Grants support staff, students and community partners to deliver initiatives that contribute to a socially just world.
- The SOUL Award which has enabled thousands of students to volunteer, lead and learn alongside communities beyond the classroom.
- Living Lab Northern Rivers, a collaborative research and design hub in Lismore, where UTS and Southern Cross University (SCU) work with community and government to drive climate adaptation, long-term flood resilience, and sustainable housing solutions.
- The UTS Social Impact Lab also works alongside local communities to co-design innovative responses to complex challenges. In 2025 alone, the Lab collaborated with 80 community partners, 500 community members, 70 UTS staff and 40 students on initiatives spanning housing, sustainability and capability development.
- Further examples include the UTS Psychology Clinic, UTS Rapido, and The Big Lift, alongside countless other community-engaged teaching, research and partnership initiatives taking place across the university.
These initiatives may differ in focus, but they share a common approach: partnership, mutual learning and a commitment to valuing community expertise.
Creating impact through partnerships
Enriching learning, research and social impact
Strong community partnerships help ensure teaching, research and innovation remain connected to the challenges and opportunities facing society.
They enrich student learning by providing opportunities to apply knowledge in real-world settings, strengthen the relevance and impact of research, and help universities contribute to social, cultural, environmental and economic outcomes.
The Charter will challenge UTS to deepen this work by strengthening partnership approaches, better recognising community expertise and embedding engagement more consistently across the university.