Around the world, two phenomena have suddenly gained attention of political, economic and social leaders of our times. The first, of course, is the intensified, vocal, visible and powerful citizensâ movement—from Senegal, Thailand, India, Tunisia, Egypt, UK, Chile—everywhere. At the base of these movements are youth—young people from all strata and spaces of society. The message from these citizen movements is clear—the young citizens want to be engaged in the democratic development of their societies and communities.

The second phenomena is the increasing—rapidly increasing—demand for post-secondary education in all its myriad dimensions, forms and post_contents. Millions of aspirants are queuing up for enrolment, only constraints being cost, quality and delivery. Educational administrators, planners and policy-makers are yet to figure out how to respond to this surge and diversity of demands from all societies.

Common element in these two phenomena—citizensâ movements and demands for post-secondary education—are the youth today. Irrespective of the percentage of young people in a societyâs population, the young are a differently thinking, feeling and acting lot. Most existing institutions in modern societies—governments, businesses, universities & colleges—are not able to understand or cope with the aspirations of the young.

Is it possible to combine these elements in a manner that the young get opportunities for meaningful engagements in societies? This is where civic engagement by post-secondary educational institutions can make a difference. By creating opportunities for civic participation and engagement during the period of education in such institutions, the young of today—and tomorrow—can become an integral part of democratic development of all societies. Thus, institutions of post-secondary education can find new ways of promoting learning and education of their students—and teachers—through creative forms of civic engagement.

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