Reflections on community-engaged learning in economics and finance : consultancy projects that link teaching and research

This paper draws on four years of experience teaching and evaluating a compulsory third year capstone unit called Economics and Finance Engagement Project at the University of Western Sydney, in which students solve real-life business problems simultaneously adding to the body of academic knowledge. Based on an understanding of community engagement as a reciprocal endeavour, academics and industry or community partners develop consultancy projects that can be undertaken by students to address actual problems. The scope of such projects allows, encourages and enables students to contribute to improvements in ortho-praxis and ortho-doxis. The paper examines what third year students need to learn in order to undertake consultancy projects, industry and community partner needs in this setting, and the demands of this approach on the academics facilitating it. Integrating these three perspectives and putting them in the context of the literature on service learning and community engagement, the paper concludes that there is no substitute for authenticity in engagement in both its forms, engaged teaching and engaged research – an insight that poses considerable challenges for academic administration and leadership.