AACCUP Consultancy Visit

December 9, 2019
Notes on Extension and Community Involvement

The extension program begins with an approved extension agenda of the university.
Then colleges need to conduct community needs assessment to identify problems and
challenges of the community. After establishing the baseline data, colleges can then
plan the extension program as a response to the needs of the community.

When we talk about extension program, it is more of a faculty activity and not a
student event. Activities conducted out of the requirements of the course are
evaluated in Area 3: Curriculum and Instruction. Extension is a special program of
the college where the faculty, staff and some students offer services to the community
because of the felt need. Faculty may collaborate with the staff and some students
because the extension program is basically “outside of the subject/course.”

Extension services differ from extension program. Most of the extension services
are individual / separate activities which are not under one umbrella and without a
common goal. These are more of community services and not an extension program.
Extension program is based on the findings of community needs assessment. It is a
series of activities that is holistic geared towards the attainment of identified outcomes.
For example, if you identify a community with a very high poverty incidence rate and
their problems include malnutrition and lack of income, your extension program will
be centered on alleviating poverty and solving malnutrition. Under your extension
program, you may have the following related and continuous activities: Conducting an
info drive / session on the importance of nutrition; Introducing families to having a small
vegetable garden; Teaching them how to grow fruits and vegetables; Training them
how to make products out from the fruits and vegetables; Guiding them to do marketing
and selling strategies to have more sales; and Teaching them how to manage their
finances. All these activities contribute to the realization of an outcome. These can
also be done in collaboration with 2 or more colleges depending upon their fields of
specialization, especially when the program is already well established. Then make
an impact study to determine the progress and impact of your extension program. If
you have a certain technology / process, you may transfer it to the community and
guide the community how to make it sustainable.

In level 1 accreditation, accreditors will look whether the program is sustainable. What
technologies have you already transferred to the community. If successfully
implemented, you may proceed to the next community and identify their problems, but
the extension program is under the extension agenda of the university.