Imagining a curriculum for an engaged university

In this chapter we elaborate on how, as a research intensive Australian metropolitan university, Macquarie University responded to global and local pressures and the wicked problems these present to develop an undergraduate curriculum that aspires to be distinctive, intellectually challenging, and community-engaged: one that meets the needs - personal and professional - of students as they transition into a world of complex social and technological change. We trace the path by which the Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) program, a central plank of the re-imagined curriculum, was conceived. We describe PACE’s conceptual antecedents in an interconnected array of pedagogical approaches and philosophical conceptions of the purpose of higher education united by a common belief in the efficacy of engaged, experiential learning. We chart the initial phases of the program’s implementation and argue that PACE is proving to be a significant contributor to and differentiator of Macquarie University in terms of student experience and capability, and applied, community-engaged learning.