A Continuum Of University Student Volunteer Programme Models (AUS 2020)

08/10/2020

Published: 2020

Authors: Holmes, Paull, Haski-Leventhal, MacCallum, Omari, Walker, ... & Maher

Published by: Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management

University student volunteering is prevalent in Western countries, but has rarely been critically evaluated by researchers. Little is known about the different ways in which student volunteer programmes are organised.

Using a matrix constructed from the publicly available websites of all Australian universities, and 60 interviews with key stakeholders at six universities, a desk audit was undertaken during the period November 2013 to January 2014, with a range of university websites being revisited in September 2016 and July 2019. All Australian universities (40 at the time of study) were included.

This paper identified nine different models of student volunteer programmes in a continuum of increasing direct management by universities.

  1. Integrated model across faculties and university (this coordinates all volunteer opportunities both on and off campus within one administrative framework);
  2. Student-university partnership programmes (students work with paid university staff to deliver volunteer programmes);
  3. Centrally-administered programmes, with little or no input from students;
  4. Faculty-based programmes linked to a specific discipline;
  5. Student-driven programmes including student-run volunteer hubs;
  6. Broker model (university staff or students identifying volunteering opportunities in the community and connecting students with these organisations);
  7. Independent (one-off) projects;
  8. External programmes operating at the university; eg, Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience which is a non-profit organisation that provides mentoring programmes for Indigenous students operating across multiple universities; and
  9. Information-only model (universities encourage students to volunteer and provides information about off-campus opportunities);

For universities themselves, this mapping could be of significant strategic interest. The identification of the various models offers the opportunity for comparison and a more considered approach to development of programmes. Volunteering peak bodies and Volunteer Involving Organisations interacting with universities as student volunteering evolves will benefit from shared language and mutual expectations of how programmes operate.

For more information contact: 

Kirsten Holmes School of Marketing, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia: K.Holmes@cbs.curtin.edu.au