International service-learning projects on water sustainable management in higher education: a case study on improving water quality in a needy community

Purpose: The first aim of this paper was to discuss the learning experience of university students who participated in a service-learning project on sustainable water management. By investigating the students’ engagement in a real-world, community-based project, this study also aimed to provide insights into the effectiveness of service-learning as a pedagogical approach for sustainable development education. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presented a service-learning project organized by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on improving water quality in low-income communities. An overview of the project was provided, including the curriculum design, project contents, implementation process, as well as students’ assessments, evaluation and feedback. Based on students’ assessments, the outcomes and impacts of this project were discussed. Additionally, several barriers were identified during this project, and corresponding suggestions were proposed to improve the service quality and increase its positive impacts. Findings: The students established 12 water filtration systems to improve the water quality in a needy village overseas. Apart from the benefits to the service recipients, the participating students experienced personal development and civic engagement measured in 10 aspects, including the application of classroom learning, adaptive problem-solving, creative thinking, community contribution, commitment to helping the disadvantaged, empathy and compassion, concern for those in need, moral commitment to civic affairs, multi-perspective analysis and informed decision-making. Originality/value: Although the recorded project was not the first international service-learning project on water sustainable management, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the whole procedure of the service-learning project was documented as a compulsory credit-bearing subject in Hong Kong universities. With the water sustainability project example, this paper shows how to integrate service-learning subjects into university curricula and what benefits and challenges they could bring.