• local public body,
• local stakeholders
• local civil society initiatives

Community partners provide ideas for projects that students can do. Students can apply for projects based on their interests, after which course teachers try to match students based on their interests. When students engage, they focus on social and ecological problems in the local society. 

The partner role is substantial, making them very involved in the course. Partners take the lead in student coaching, meeting once every two weeks with the students to discuss the process. They organize kick-off meetings, attend in-between presentations and give feedback. Partners engage with last-year students, which provide them entrance to a new group of potential workers in the field who are about to enter the labour market. In return, and as an investment, partners engage substantially in this course.  

The course is part of the mandatory curriculum in the MA of Civil Engineering Technology.

• The student masters the basic principles behind sustainable urban development and renewal and building construction.
• The student can use scientific-disciplinary knowledge to analyse complex problems at different scales, from building to neighbourhood, and provide solutions that consider both social and ecological aspects.
• The student can collect, evaluate and process scientific and technical information and use the findings to elaborate original interpretations and ideas in support of current societal challenges.
• The student becomes aware of the social role that he/she can fulfil as an engineer.
• The student can engage in an active dialogue with “boots on the ground” and with a variety of professionals among social business, civil society organizations or local authorities in the context of social-ecological projects. While collaborating with professionals and organizations, the student can demonstrate sufficient professionalism.
• The student can critically reflect on his/her own knowledge and experience, acquire feedback from others and possibly adjust his/her attitude based on his/her engagement with a social business, a civil society organization or a local authority. Furthermore, the student is sensitive to the possible social and ecological impacts generated by projects at different scales, from building to neighbourhood. 

Service activities: The students engage with a service-learning partner organisation and develop a project, working either in group or individually. 

Learning activities: The students learn the functioning of the partner organization from the inside, learn more about the local social-ecological challenges, and come into contact with vulnerable groups (e.g. captive landlords and/or tenants, elderly people, people with migration background, people with physical or mental disabilities, …). The students support the partner organisation and carry out a project work through concrete tasks in consultation with a supervisor, who guide them through the organisation’s challenges 

In small groups, students use their existing technical skills, and develop new ones, to help with specific tasks, such as developing a decision tree to help a non-profit select a renovation strategy for socially-rented housing; or communicating an urban greening strategy to local stakeholders. They discuss the feasibility of the project with the community partner and have a voice during every stage of the project.

Students write a report to critically reflect on their experience and the professional roles they have played, which is presented during the lectures. Reflection takes place during and after the service activity.

• Critical reflection assessments
• Presentations

Attitudes

• Civic-mindedness
• Responsibility: Students gain exposure to civil society initiatives and public bodies who focus on urgent societal and environmental problems. Through their work, they learn how to communicate to various stakeholders and use their professional skills to positively impact communities.

Skills

• Analytical and critical thinking skills
• Autonomous learning skills
• Co-operation skills
• Flexibility and adaptability

Students often work with small organisations on innovative research and design topics. They must take the initiative to co-write their own assignments together with their service-learning partners and the teaching staff, and must be flexible to accommodate real-world contingencies (in timelines, data availability, etc). While working with these organizations on societal and environmental challenges and communicating with diverse stakeholders students develop a sense of civic-mindedness and responsibility.

Teamwork is multidisciplinary (between the faculties of engineering technology and architecture) as well as multicultural, strengthening co-operation, autonomous learning, and adaptability while responding to real-world constraints. Working on their tasks, students are exposed to many real-world problems faced by their partners, such as a lack of budgets, data, time, or coordination. They are given the opportunity to critically reflect on the underlying causes behind such day-to-day struggles, and give suggestions on how things could be systemically improved.

• Social responsibility
• Independent working and autonomous learning

• Supporting non-profit organizations in making decision making processes
• Renovate housing infrastructure, accounting for the SDGs

The feasibility of the work for the students is a challenge. Community partners create the project and students can apply, but teachers check whether it is feasible. This also means that sometimes expectations of the community partners need to be adjusted. 

• having a network of community partners in the field
• building trust with the network of community partners
• balancing the topic of the projects and student skills
• purposeful matching of skills
• close follow-up of all projects