“In collaboration with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), we are publishing a new report assessing the link between civic engagement, higher education, and participation in democracy. The report draws on studies from the past few decades and focuses on how researchers and practitioners define civic engagement, the nature of the relationship between higher education and civic behaviors and attitudes, the equity implications of civic education, and what the research says about the effectiveness of different types of civic engagement programming.

Our key findings include:

• There is no one clear definition of civic engagement. The literature is split between those who use civic and community engagement interchangeably and those who argue that the two are similar but distinct concepts.
• The existing literature is overwhelmingly focused on voting outcomes. Voter turnout or intent to vote are the two most commonly used outcome measures in the literature, particularly in the context of federal elections. While fundamental, voting is one of many forms of democratic engagement, and one to which access can be suppressed.
• Certain student populations—and the institutions that serve them—are understudied. Despite evidence that civic education programming’s effects differ by demographics, students of color, as well as rural, first-generation, and low-income students are understudied in the literature—as are the institutions that serve these diverse student bodies. Regional public universities in particular are virtually invisible within the literature.
• The residential experience matters. Nascent research indicates that the strongest institutional predictor of high levels of civic engagement is whether a college or university is residential. This has implications for commuter-dominant campuses, as well as for online instruction.
• STEM departments in particular could benefit from integrating civic engagement into the curriculum. While incoming undergraduates express similar levels of interest in civic engagement programming or coursework, preliminary research shows that STEM majors are less civically engaged than their humanities and social sciences counterparts and have lower satisfaction with civic engagement opportunities on their campuses.”

https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/assessing-the-civic-campus/