Education in Ethics and Civics and Social Commitment in University Students

Recent decades have seen growing international concern about the lack of social commitment among young people, shown in their failure to participate in social affairs, their scant interest in formal politics, and their low turnout at elections. We first outline the international framework which forms the background to our paper. This leads to a discussion of the ethical and civic education which university students receive in the context of the social mission of the university and the European Higher Education Area. The article then moves on to examine one of the most promising initiatives in this field: service-learning. We conclude with a proposal containing some suggestions of relevance to higher education. The need for education in ethics and civics underpins the whole article, since this is the key to promoting social commitment among young people.