University Student Volunteering (USV): Instruments for Its Comprehensive Diagnosis (ICD-USV)

Abstract

University Student Volunteering (USV) requires attention to guarantee its pedagogic quality and its fulfilment of community service. However, a review of the literature reveals a lack of tools for assessing the quality of USV. Thus, our research question was: how can we evaluate the efficacy of volunteer programs in higher education? This article follows a qualitative methodology through an evaluative case study of the creation of a set of instruments for the comprehensive diagnostic of USV (ICD-USV) with a 360° perspective, which provide feedback and feedforward for the development of USV, thus offering indicators of its quality. The application of the ICD-USV at a Spanish university and the participation of one volunteer student, five participating entities' technicians and two USV unit managers allowed for the identification of new analysis criteria for the adequate management of a USV program. Measures that could be used to guarantee the quality of basic, pedagogic, logistic and processual criteria, and to address the proposals and difficulties detected, are suggested.