In the efforts of bringing back the role of university as the leveler of society, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) is committed to mainstreaming this ‘communiversity’ concept and ensuring that the Whole-Institution Transformation that has been happening inside the University expands to the surrounding communities leading towards Whole-Community Transformation.

In translating this agenda into a concrete action plan, IIUM has introduced new sustainable development courses and embedded sustainable development in the existing courses as part of curriculum reorientation towards Education for Sustainable Development.  The process of curriculum reorientation is changing the narrative of community engagement as what used to be co-curricular activities, to becoming the main curriculum of the university, truly translating the concept of ‘communiversity’ through formal education. IIUM has introduced two university-required courses which comprise action-oriented community empowerment projects which are:

1)    Usrah in Action I
2)    Usrah in Action II

Prior to taking the above courses, students will take up an introductory-level course to set a foundation for students to understand the concept and principles of sustainable development. The ‘Usrah in Action I & II’ courses are designed to implement the concept and principles into actions on the ground. In ‘Usrah in Action I’, students are expected to do a community profiling and issue-mapping of the community of choice. At the end of the ‘Usrah in Action I’, students will present their proposed solution project i.e. sustainable community development project to be carried out in ‘Usrah in Action II’ based on the issues found during the profiling and issue-mapping in a symposium. ‘Usrah in Action II’ focuses on project planning and implementation.