**7.2 Practical implications**

Observation of the strategic goals of the case study universities in this chapter paints an optimistic picture, especially among the poor-performing universities. According to [21] no matter how long the vision statement can be without visible outcomes, in the end, it will inoculate organisational culture, which will lead to such expected outcomes. Neglection of community engagement that is the third responsibility of the HEIs limits other opportunities such as university-community innovative knowledge development and potential socio-economic development of such communities. Lessons from this chapter are that universities cannot hope to be above the rest without clear goals and related indicators as drivers to the ultimate goal. Strong and productive leadership is important to steer the process with definite responsibility and accountability. When universities align their core functions with humanitarian development, the ultimate result is the attainment of all SDGs because all disciplines will provide their expert knowledge where communities are at a disadvantage.

### *Advancing Community Engagement in Higher Education Institutions in South Africa… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108150*

When there are model universities such as those highly ranked, it is best if there join hands to uplift each other to greater heights. Benchmarking has proven to be a learning strong tool across all economic spheres. Julia Nyerere [4] spoke of one African University lifting another for the sake of Africans (public good) if we have a top-ranked University such as the University of Cape Town and also have the University of Fort Hare struggling to meet the social responsibilities as required in the community engagement, then we are miles behind to achieve the full responsibilities of the higher education institutions expected by governments, political leaders and communities at large. Companies that are aspiring to grow visit those that are doing well and exchange knowledge and skills. In the case of universities, skills and knowledge exchange is already in the process through examination moderations, exchange programmes, peer reviews and so on. If universities go contrary to knowledge and skills sharing to advance community engagement for the public good, we perpetuate knowledge ivory towers, strangulate new knowledge creation, and block social networking opportunities and isolation of others.

Strategic decisions need designated leaders to influence decisions that will be communicated and articulated in a clear set of performance indicators to operational stakeholders at various levels within the organisation. Based on the comparisons between the top-ranked universities and those at the bottom of the ranking, strategy is the main deciding factor because, without the strategy, university vision is left to chance, gut feeling or subjective actions. Globally, universities need to shiftily move to the hybrid operation of in-campus and out-of-campus to address social challenges such as poverty and extreme hunger, climate change and its impacts, the digital divide that impacts learning across the low-resourced areas, contextual communityinnovated agricultural approaches. If universities shy away from social needs, then HEI is irrelevant for communities.

## **7.3 Limitations**

The authors were limited by using document analysis only without supplementation of interviews of the stakeholders from the case study universities. This could have closed data gaps and provided answers to some missing information on the documents analysed. A small study sample limits data generalisation since only four out of 26 universities were studied. Additionally, various conceptualizations of community engagement across universities created challenges in identifying activities related to community engagement. Reliance on documents available in the public domain such as the websites and some universities presented challenges where such documents were not posted.

#### **7.4 Recommendations for further studies**

Regarding the noted complexities and challenges pointing to a general lack of clearly developed strategic goals to facilitate meaningful community engagement initiatives and targets in some universities, a study is needed to establish how the universities which responded well to this effect were developing and implementing their strategic plans for community engagement. The lack of proper support from the university leadership on community engagement needs to be investigated as a gap needing assistance to improve the community engagement initiatives and targets for universities. Furthermore, a model of funding community engagement initiatives and targets needs to be developed. Currently, there is no known model which exists.

Respective universities should conduct research focusing on community engagement challenges and a general understanding of community engagement across all departments and disciplines. A university-community collaborative intervention study raises community awareness to stimulate community-driven or initiated studies. This will enhance contextual problem statements as understood by communities and not the other way around.
