The call for the Uniservitate Award 2024 recorded 55% more submissions than the first edition in 2022. Between January and May, Catholic higher education institutions worldwide submitted 311 service-learning projects.
The Uniservitate Award aims to identify and showcase the initiatives that combine academic excellence and the concrete testimony of a socially committed institution. It also acknowledges and promotes Catholic educational institutions that best integrate undergraduate academic learning with community service.
The seven hubs of the Uniservitate programme played a key role in the organization. Working in close collaboration with the Programme Coordination, the regional teams helped revise documents and procedures, disseminate the call for proposals and were in charge of both the submitted experiences and the evaluators and juries.
The 311 submissions come from Catholic higher education institutions in Latin America (125), Africa (72), Asia and Oceania (39), Southern Europe (27), Eastern Europe and the Middle East (21), the United States and Canada (14) and Northern Europe (13).
The submitted experiences, which should be in progress or already implemented as of January 2021, are analyzed in two stages by a total of ninety evaluators. Jury members, specializing in higher education and community service, will review the shortlisted projects.
The Uniservitate Award 2024 is endowed with a share of 84,000 euros, distributed in prizes and special mentions across each of the seven regions within the Uniservitate programme. The winners and the award ceremonies in each region will be announced between June and September. In addition, the award includes the participation of one professor and one student from each of the two winning projects per region in the fifth edition of the Uniservitate Symposium held in Rome in November. There, the winners will exchange with colleagues from all over the world and participate in a private audience with Pope Francis.
