Page 38 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

coherent policies from early childhood education, through schooling to higher

education, and throughout lifelong learning. This requires more connectivity
between the work of those responsible for higher education and other ministries

and sectors, which can bring about change only through a joint effort.

Higher education institutions need to strengthen their capacity in responding to the
needs of a more diverse student and staff body, particularly through improving

initial and continuing professional training for academic and administrative staff.
Effective counselling and guidance for potential and enrolled students should help
widen their access to, participation in, and completion of higher education studies.

International mobility programmes in higher education should be structured and
implemented in a way that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion (Ščukanec,
2020).

Community engagement should be considered as a process whereby higher
education institutions engage with external community stakeholders to undertake

joint activities that can be mutually beneficial. Like social dimension policies,
community engagement should be embedded in the core missions of higher
education. Such engagement provides a holistic basis on which universities can

address a broad range of societal needs, including those of vulnerable,
disadvantaged, and underrepresented groups while enriching their teaching,
research, and other core functions (Ščukanec, 2020).

In 2014, the Development Strategy for Student Support at the University of Zagreb
until 2025 (University of Zagreb, 2014) was adopted, which states, among other

things, that students will be supported in extracurricular activities which will
contribute to better achievement of learning outcomes, employability, and personal
development.

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