UWS is participating in two10-year projects which aim to alleviate poverty, boost household income, increase food security, improve the status of women and develop more resilient farming systems.
The research, while focussed on local improvement at the household farm level in western China and eastern India, has been influential on policy formation thus benefiting farming families in the two countries.
The research projects, conducted through the university’s school of science and health, are funded by the Australian government and partnered by the Chinese and Indian governments.
This long-term research is an example of the participation by staff and students in UWS’s engagement in wide-ranging community and regional projects – 201 in all, of which 126 are directly related to the priority issues for Greater Western Sydney; issues relating to health, educational and economic inequalities in the region
At the regional level, the projects include the Parramatta Community Justice Clinic, Classrooms without Borders, Students in Free Enterprise, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Building Arabic Businesses and the Greater Western Sydney Transport Alliance.
“UWS has sought to respond to the needs of the region through its core activities of teaching and research, as well as institutional collaboration with organisations targeting specific population groups,” said a 146-page document reviewing the university’s engagement.
“Many research projects involving community and industry partners are taken forward as part of the UWS research agenda, as well as through connections forged between university school and research institutes and the community and government sector.”
The document said that from an economic development perspective, engagement with regional communities had been made more relevant by an acknowledgment of the role of knowledge creation and transfer for regional competitiveness in the modern global economy.
UWS has sought since its inception in 1989 to mark a distinctive identity on the basis of its responsiveness to local and regional needs in such areas as multiculturalism, refugee education, cultural diversity, housing, health and disadvantaged communities.
To provide a perspective on inequality in the region, a 2012 study by Deloitte Access Economics found that GWS comprised postcodes that occupy both the most and least affluent categories within the Sydney area.
The Deloitte report noted that out of the 14 GWS local government areas, eight have a socio economic index for areas (SEIFA) below 1000, implying that these regions are experiencing relative disadvantage compared to the rest of the country (see box).
“The university is now well known within the higher education sector as an institution with both a clear legislative mandate to serve its region and a conviction that this is a characteristic that defines the university’s purpose and guides its planning,” said the engagement review document.
The university regards being engaged locally and internationally as achieving its ideal of “Bringing Knowledge to Life”, through community and business engagement.
