About the Journal

Focus, Aim and Objectives of AJHECE

In comparison to teaching, learning and research in higher education, community engagement is a recently introduced and less-known core function of higher education. Community engagement is intended to advance the developmental role of higher education institutions and inculcate civic and social responsibilities in students. AJHECE focuses on community engagement and development research addressing social injustice, poverty, corruption, unemployment and epistemic injustice, among other social and economic issues.

The main aim of AJHECE is to contribute to building a body of knowledge on community engagement for the African continent. The journal aims to publish and report on a wide range of community engagement and community development aspects in Africa, its diaspora, and the Global South, with a strong focus on research and praxis. The journal’s publications will reflect the diversity of practice in community engagement and the diversity of voices that participate in co-creating knowledge for individual, community and societal well-being. The journal actively seeks international dialogue within the Global South and partnerships between the Global South and the Global North that provide perspectives on and for community engagement in Africa. The editorial team is committed to a developmental approach in the publication process which includes mentoring young academics and community members while maintaining the goal of high standard and quality publication.

By providing a forum for researchers, scholars, practitioners and policymakers, the key objectives of AJHECE are to: 

• Contribute to the body of knowledge on community engagement produced in Africa; encourage the African voice and voices from the Global South in general, which may aid in combating epistemicide and marginalising alternative knowledge paradigms at higher education institutions.
• Grow community engagement as a discipline with philosophies, theories and praxis relevant to the African context and a practice that contributes to the various dimensions (social, economic, cultural, psychological, spiritual, and political) of human and community development.
• Embed community engagement in all activities of the university, especially research, and signal the importance of scholarly work on community-university partnerships.
• Advance collaborative research methodologies, especially community-based participatory research (CBPR), where communities and academics are knowledge co-creators and collaborators in research practice and knowledge dissemination. This kind of research, which values the input of and produces
  knowledge for and with local communities can contribute to the process of decolonisation of universities in Africa.
• Provide a space for professional development, discourse and debate on community engagement and sharing knowledge through the scholarship of engagement in the African context, the Global South and partnerships with the global North that provide perspectives on and for community engagement in Africa.
• Incorporate an author and young editorial board members support programme to encourage new authors in the field to establish themselves as scholarly writers and as a new generation of editorial board members

Frequency of Publication: Once a year in November. First publication in November 2023

Open Access Statement

The African Journal of Higher Education Community Engagement (AJHECE) is an online, open-access journal proudly hosted by Rhodes University Library. Our mission is to disseminate high-quality research and scholarship in higher education community engagement, making it accessible to a global audience.

Commitment to Open Access

AJHECE is committed to the principles of open access. We believe that free and unrestricted access to research promotes the sharing of knowledge, supports academic collaboration, and enhances the impact of scholarly work. As such, all articles published in AJHECE are freely available to readers immediately upon publication, without any subscription fees, access charges, or article processing charges (APCs).

Benefits of Open Access

1. Accessibility: By removing financial barriers, we ensure that researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public can access the latest research findings and insights.

2. Visibility: Open access increases the visibility and readership of published articles, which can lead to higher citation rates and greater academic and societal impact.

3. Equity: Open access democratizes knowledge by providing equal opportunities for researchers from all regions and institutions, regardless of their financial resources.

Licensing and Copyright

All articles in AJHECE are published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited; the result is not used for commercial purposes, and any contributions on this must be made accessible under the same licence as the original.

Author Benefits

Authors publishing with AJHECE retain the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication. They benefit from the journal's rigorous peer-review process, prompt publication, and wide dissemination through open access.

Institutional Support

As part of Rhodes University Library's commitment to supporting open scholarship, AJHECE benefits from the Rhodes University Library and Information Services' infrastructure, resources, and expertise in digital publishing. This partnership ensures that the journal operates sustainably and adheres to the highest standards of academic publishing.

Archiving and Preservation

The AJHECE is preserved through participation in the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Preservation Network (PN).