The team behind ACU's successful submission for the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification has been awarded the 2024 Vice-Chancellor's Staff Excellence Award for Mission Excellence.
Last year ACU made history when we became one of the first Australian higher education institutions to receive the new Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
The classification recognises ACU as a higher education leader in institutionalised community engagement and committed to working with community to transform society.
ACU was one of only two universities outside the Unites States who have received this significant classification. Receiving the classification placed ACU at the leading edge of university-community engagement in Australia, and as a leading catholic university in the space internationally.
The ACU Engagement team responsible for ACU's successful submission has this year been recognised with a Vice-Chancellor's Staff Excellence Award for Mission Excellence.
The team, which includes Dr Jen Azordegan, Vivien Cinque, Miranda Bush, Dr Matthew Pink and Jennifer Tredinnick, said they were amazed and humbled to be recognised.
"It recognises and validates all that hard work of the team over months, and even years, to gain Carnegie Classification," Dr Azordegan said.
"It also reinforces the fact that high-quality community engagement is a valued expression of our institutional mission and Catholic identity."
Dr Azordegan explained that ACU approaches community engagement as an activation of our mission, based on reciprocal exchanges that affirm human dignity and advance the common good.
"Because Carnegie offers a rigorous framework for continuous improvement, it has provided ACU leaders and staff with an aspirational guidebook for impactful community engagement that helps to fulfil our mission as a Catholic institution."
Community engagement is embedded throughout ACU and is one of the ways ACU expresses its mission in action and contributes to thriving communities.
Our undergraduate students participate in community engagement opportunities as part of the Core Curriculum. Staff can also apply to receive up to 35 hours of time release throughout the year to participate in approved community engagement activities.
Other ACU community engagement initiatives include the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit; the Clemente program; and the Order of Malta and ACU Community Hub in Melbourne, to name just a few.
Dr Azordegan said it had been an honour for the team to share ACU's community engagement story through the classification process.
"Carnegie Classification is all about continuous improvement, so we look forward to supporting ACU's evolution in this area and continuing to tell this important story," Dr Azordegan said.
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