Energizing Higher Education Sustainability through Rural-Community Development Activation

Muhammad Setiawan Kusmulyono (), Wawan Dhewanto and Melia Famiola
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Muhammad Setiawan Kusmulyono: School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
Wawan Dhewanto: School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
Melia Famiola: School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 40132, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Higher education institutions play important roles in the community. Unfortunately, measuring the accomplishment of HEIs in developing communities is challenging. Most HEI contributions to the community are merely a formality and moral obligation. This study’s identified gap is the absence of integration of community development activities into HEIs, which would boost their impact on environmental sustainability. This study intends to investigate how institutions that support entrepreneurial-oriented community development affect students’ learning and impact society. This study employs an action research approach to develop long-term actionable knowledge. This approach employed a case study from the Rural Community Development Program, a community empowerment program based on institutionalized entrepreneurship practices (formal courses in the curriculum) from ABC University (a pseudonym). The RCDP allows the HEI to interact with society through a dual simultaneous cycle which allow knowledge transfer, social value transfer, and business development with its partners. This model allows more than 100 groups of students at ABC University to be more focused in developing community. On the theoretical side, the RCDP contributes by encouraging the role of social entrepreneurship courses which provides a more significant impact through practice-based lectures while also significantly impacting rural communities’ business knowledge in developing their micro enterprises.

Keywords: action research; community development; student course; actionable knowledge; village entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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