Volunteering Among Students In Romania And Hungary Cross-Border Area

Considering the multiple benefits of volunteering, this paper analyses both the forms and the sources of volunteering among students. Community participation in all its formal or informal types, by producing collective goods is proven to be beneficial for the society. Nevertheless it has positive outcomes for the individuals involved in such activities by strengthening their social capital, empowering them and providing social skills needed for a better social integration. These effects are even more important for youth which are still in their formation stage. Consequently, by getting involved, volunteering in different activities, youngsters develop both values and competencies which promote awareness of social problems and future involvement in solving such issues. More, some of these values and skills may also facilitate their integration in the field work. As we consider that volunteering is particularly important for youth, in this paper we investigate the forms of participation among students in Romania and Hungary cross border area. The research objectives set in this analysis were to: (1) analyse the dimensions and structure of volunteering among students in this area, (2) investigate volunteering covariates, and (3) to elaborate a profile of students involved in such activities. The investigated covariates of volunteering were structured on: socio-demographical characteristics, educational participation, previous academic path, current academic integration, and employment. Although volunteering and associative participation are intertwined, in this investigation on students we consider the second as a particular form of volunteering. Analyses are presented separately were appropriate, yet the focus of this paper relies on volunteering. Our main findings reveal a significant difference between volunteering among students in Romanian and Hungarian universities. Among socio-demographical characteristics solely household endowment proved to influence volunteering. Academically engaged students, with good school achievement are the ones that volunteer. The profile of students that volunteer supports the common sense idea of “good students” involved in all areas of their life. The data analysed in this paper is derived from an international research conducted in Romania and Hungary cross border area, in which 2619 students from seven higher education institutions were questioned.