Português / Español

Current debates about the university and its transformations have acquired “university social responsibility”, “university social commitment” or “university relevance”, and have reviewed others like “university social function”. Although there are some conceptual, ideological geographical or political differences, they all share the need to strengthen the link with the environment. In this sense, community university practices such as volunteering, university extension and service learning are relevant. Since 2006, Argentina supporting programs on service leaning practices have been developed. As regards public policy, the Ministry of Education created that year the University Volunteer Program in order to finance projects in public universities, while the University of Buenos Aires strengthened the UBANEX program under similar characteristics. In both cases, the aim is to finance university volunteering projects than join curricula and the resolution of social concerns, particularly in vulnerable social environments. The study analyzes how this is accepted at the University of Buenos Aires. Participants’ motivations, difficulties and obstacles are shown and finally, interaction with the rest of the university activities and functions are described.

Higher education, Citizenship education, Student volunteer, Service-Learning.

Kandel, V.N. (2013). Hay algunos que sienten que esto les parte la cabeza. Notas sobre experiencias de Aprendizaje-Servicio en la Universidad de Buenos Aires. International Journal of Education for Social Justice (RIEJS), 2(2), 177-193.