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For Ioannis K. Panoussis, universities have a responsibility to make knowledge available and impactful for society, especially its most vulnerable members. Here, he highlights two of the Catholic University of Lille’s projects to serve its local community as a humanist and socially-engaged university.
With all of the challenges that universities and society currently face, what does it mean for a university to be ‘committed’ to the wider communities that we serve?
Above all, it means upholding our values and translating them into action through our threefold academic mission of teaching, research and service to society. Academic freedom, peace, solidarity, justice, inclusion, ethics, openness to others and to the world and respect for people and the planet are all non-negotiable values. They are humanist values with which everyone can identify, regardless of their beliefs.
As such, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Knowledge is an invaluable source of power. We therefore have a responsibility to put that knowledge at the service of society, particularly its most vulnerable members.
There are many ways to do this. We can turn our campuses into incubators for the Sustainable Development Goals, through sustainable mobility, energy and water efficient buildings, inclusion, health and wellbeing. We can also foster a culture of engagement, volunteering and the sharing of skills.
I would particularly like to highlight two projects that exemplify our university’s commitment in this regard.
At the Catholic University of Lille , we have decided to give the humanities a stronger place in the curriculum for all students, regardless of their chosen discipline.
This broad field encompasses the humanities and social sciences, with a particular focus on history, philosophy, culture, politics, ethics and law. The objective is to provide every student with a broad education that enables them to understand the world more fully. This includes their ability to develop critical thinking, maintain creativity and imagination, seek out ‘beauty’ and justice and give meaning to their actions.
Alongside this theoretical and educational dimension, the programme enables students to participate in and develop service-learning initiatives. The philosophy is simple: learning by doing while serving the most vulnerable members of society.
One example is the launch of a ‘legal access bus’, a mobile unit travelling to areas where public access to legal services is limited or inexistant, in order to support people who are distant from the legal system. They may, for example, be facing poor housing conditions, domestic violence or difficulties in managing a small business.
The programme is built around an active partnership with legal professionals, who supervise both the learning process and the initiatives themselves. They also help students reflect on their experience, considering not only its impact on them as future lawyers, but also as citizens. This holistic approach engages the mind, the hands and the heart of every student involved.
A different example can be found in the field of health and social support. Our university has chosen to contribute, in partnership with neighbouring local authorities, to the creation of a neighbourhood centred around our hospitals and built on the principles of care and coexistence.
This neighbourhood, called ‘Humanicité’, brings together vulnerable groups and members of our university communities, including faculties and hospitals. Students, patients, residents and people facing social challenges live alongside one another, including older people, young people with disabilities and those experiencing social exclusion.
Following a ‘living lab’ approach, we aim to foster inclusion, integration and harmonious coexistence. The neighbourhood provides a platform for teaching, service learning and applied research, while our hospitals and medical-social facilities contribute directly to the community.
It also brings together a wide range of public and private stakeholders, particularly voluntary organisations. This network is one of the keys to the neighbourhood’s success, as it seeks ultimately to empower the local community to manage and shape its own environment.
These initiatives illustrate what a humanist and socially-engaged university can look like. But their success cannot rest on universities alone.
Universities must be at the heart of wider networks involving the public, private and voluntary sectors. Local authorities, associations, corporations and local entrepreneurs all have a role to play in ensuring the success and sustainability of such initiatives.
If our mission is to educate the future leaders of our societies, we cannot fulfil it without drawing on the experience and knowledge of those already working within society. If we want our research to have a genuine impact, we need to rebuild trust through stronger relationships with civil society. And if we want our mission to serve society to succeed, we need public authorities and private actors to be part of our activities.
This is ultimately what being a committed university means: not standing apart from society, but working with it, understanding its challenges, sharing knowledge and acting together to build a more inclusive, sustainable and humane future.
Note: This article is a follow-up to the author’s presentation during a session on ‘Strength in diversity: cooperating across sectors to serve society’ at the 2026 EUA Annual Conference at Yeditepe University, Türkiye.
