Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev Social responsibility and engagement in higher education: Case of the ASEAN Lorraine Pe Symaco a, ⁎ , Meng Yew Tee b a College of Education, Zhejiang University, 148 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province 310028, China b Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Social responsibility Higher education Community engagement Sustainable development Knowledge building ASEAN Boyer’s scholarship of engagement ABSTRACT This article discusses the role of ASEAN universities in social responsibility and sustainable development. Selected country case studies are presented to describe the changing role of universities situated in a region with great diversity and potential for further economic growth, as we explore the opportunities and challenges in promoting higher education institutions (HEIs) for greater sustainable development of communities. While there is a wide variety of initiatives—including engaging diverse communities in health, education and environmental sustainability projects— social responsibility and sustainability development is still far from being fully in- tegrated into the core activities of the HEIs. This paper will examine the broader capacity of the universities’ engagement in social responsibility, as interpreted within Boyer’s framework on the scholarship of engagement. We argue that when HEIs develop an integral socially-responsible collaboration with the broader community, opportunities are created for unique epistemic advances for stakeholders involved. 1. Introduction The increasing discourse on social responsibilities of universities through the augmenting roles of among others, education for sustain- able development, social empowerment and capacity building among communities are all highlighted in line with the aspiration to create a higher education (HE) sector that is more inclusive, accountable and holistic. There is no doubt, given the enhanced commercialisation of services in higher education as evidenced by the global mobility of students and staff, and the attention to its assumed ‘third role’ to engage with industries/ local and regional partners, the position that this sector has occupied in the development plans of states (Muborakshoeva, 2015; Wan, 2015; Ahrens and McNamara, 2013). The established role of higher education in providing and producing human capital needed for development has all the more been highlighted with the demands of the knowledge-based economy, where government policy re-orientations focus on the expanding role of the higher education sector for socio- economic advancement of countries. Beyond this, the role of HE in development shifts from its long-established broader capacity as a creator of knowledge and human capital, to institutions tasked to pro- vide and edify its function in the democratisation of education and knowledge through increased access (thereby promoting (social) mo- bility). The role of this sector has also seen in recent times, along with the shifts in global/ environmental concerns, its duty to incorporate and educate societies for greater sustainable development. This article will discuss the role of universities in social responsi- bility, broadly defined, as framed within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) context. Selected country case studies will highlight the changing role of universities in social and sustainable development. This article will also examine opportunities and chal- lenges in promoting higher education institutions (HEIs) for greater sustainable development of communities. The article will also discuss the broader capacity of universities’ engagement in social responsibility as exemplified through different acuities of knowledge sharing and development, as grounded within Boyer’s framework on the scholarship of engagement. 2. Higher education, development and social responsibility The role of higher education in development is replete in literature (e.g. Pinheiro and Pillay, 2016; Huang et al., 2015; Mok, 2014). Given the increasing globalisation and internationalisation of services and calls for a broader knowledge-based economy in societies, the func- tional role of universities in the formation of learning regions is un- derscored. Higher education and its purpose to “produce a labour force that is receptive to the ever-changing functions in which it is immersed (…) and where “the formation and production of both theoretical and practical knowledge through creative research, technological diffusion https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.10.001 Received 13 March 2017; Received in revised form 28 August 2018; Accepted 2 October 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lorraine@symaco.org (L.P. Symaco), mytee22@yahoo.com (M.Y. Tee). International Journal of Educational Development xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0738-0593/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Symaco, L.P., International Journal of Educational Development, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.10.001