Deconstructing the Discourse on University Social Responsibility (original) (raw)
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In this paper, we focus on one of the primary and unique responsibilities of a university: doing research. First, we examined the broader social responsibility of today's universities against the background of global trends. We argue that given today's tremendous speed of change, universities need to get their strategic response to the trends of technological change, demographics and globalization right. Secondly, we analyzed the social responsibility of universities in Europe in the context of their mission of striving for excellence in teaching, outreach and research. We argue that the University should focus on its primary mission, before starting to act upon its wider social responsibility. Regarding research we need to distinguish between on the one hand research applied to education, and on the other hand research with the aim of fulfilling society's demand for new knowledge through theoretical and applied scientific research. Third, we outlined how to organize support for the successful acquisition of external competitive research funding. We suggest that specialized and decentralized support research support structures perform better than centralized and non-specialized. We outline the conceptual model and the data collection of ongoing research in this regard. We also suggest why universities tend to choose the former over the latter, despite its dominant disadvantages. Finally, we present some general conclusions and recommendations.
Editorial. About the social responsability of the universities
Given the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum (2016); it becomes urgent to, from the universities, thoroughly reflect upon the role and impact of Higher Education in the contemporary society, regarding the evolution of its social and economic systems. Such an analysis must face critical aspects as the pertinence and quality of the educational offer, the teaching and learning methods, the social relevance of research and its transference, the funding systems available to satisfy the needs and expectations of the interest groups, as well as those of society as a whole.
Knowledge as Responsibility: Universities and Society
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This essay proposes three principles that defined genuine social responsibility, and suggests that while universities claimed to be committed to this idea, many adopted social responsibility only superficially. Consequently, universities indirectly exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities and overlooked their obligation to search for truth.
Developing university social responsibility: A model for the challenges of the new civil society
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The World Declaration on Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century drawn up at the World Conference of Higher Education organized by UNESCO in Paris in 1998, the Communication of the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, Paris, 2009 held in compliance with the guidelines of the 1998 Declaration and the list of objectives of the Bologna Process highlight that social responsibility is increasingly considered an intrinsic aspect of the higher education system, particularly of the universities. This paper aims to explain the shifting from Corporate Social University to University Social Responsibility, by presenting the conceptual framework of Social Responsibility and the university as a special type of organization which needs to adopt a social responsibility strategy just like the other organizations, in order to meet the expectations of the stakeholders (present students, future students, supporters etc). The paper presents, on the other hand, a general University Social Responsibility model in the context of globalization and develops a University Social Responsibility model considering the realities and challenges of the Romanian higher education system.
Revisiting University Social Responsibility
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an organisation's collective responsibility for its impact on society has become an established concept in management scholarship since the 1990s. De Bakker, Groenewegen, and den Hond (2005) showcase the variety of institutional responsibilityrelated concepts since 1950, ranging from 1950 to 2002 until they were merged into CSR by Archie Carroll (1991). Since the beginning of the 1990s, CSR has received immense attention from academia, evidenced by a rise in the number of publications in the leading management journals (De Bakker et al., 2005). Nowadays, the concept has departed from an initial definition of an organisation's economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities as proposed by Carroll. Moreover, it is no longer considered a voluntary activity, which was a prevalent characteristic in the first decade of the 2000s (Crane, Matten, & Spence, 2008). Rather, the conceptual dimensions of economic, environmental,
Social Responsibility At The Academic Level. Study Case: The University Of Bucharest
STUDIES AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHES. ECONOMICS EDITION
In the last decades the corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a major subject both for universities, civil society and businesses. Although the CSR concept is especially promoted by large multinational and transnational corporations, it has become also a prominent issue for universities. Social responsibility represents more than a challenge for universities. It has to be a purpose of the universities, taking into account that young people formation also means creating a high level of awareness about the need to involve members of society in solving social problems. Our paper contributes for better clarifying the CSR concept and presents as a study case some of initiatives of the University of Bucharest related to the social responsibility.
Though not a strong feature of the original Bologna Joint Ministerial Declaration of the European Ministers of Education (1999) that created the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) the social dimension of higher education became a central issue in subsequent Declarations, which recognised the important influence higher education institutions (HEIs) exert on developing European society and defining and transmitting the values on which this is built. UNESCO underlines the current importance of such a contribution: “At no time in human history was the welfare of nations so closely linked to the quality and outreach of their higher education systems and institutions” (World Conference on Higher Education Partners, June 2003). The Council of Europe emphasises public responsibility for higher education and the importance of higher education governance in developing and promoting the social dimension of higher education and its distinctive contribution to the values of modern, complex so...
The university’s role in the process of creating a better society
Scientific Papers of Silesian University of Technology. Organization and Management Series, 2017
The aim of this paper is to reflect the changing role of a university in relation to the contemporary society. Higher education is one of the key investments in the future of global society. Not only in the context of the Slovak society, there is an obvious need to transform the education system, which is, in its current form, not able to adequately respond to the problems of nowadays. We believe that the key player in meeting this goal is a university that can be strongly supported by academic ethics as a direct application of ethical tools to the academic environment. Our paper is divided into two consecutive parts. In the first part, we focus on the analysis of academic ethics so that we can then, in the second part of the text, address the "controversial" question of the role of an intellectual in the present public space.
Managing obligations to society. Case of best ranked universities in social responsibility
Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, 2017
Universities have always been engines for the economy, in multiple roles they play, trying to adapt to the continual dynamic changes in the environment, to better align their offerings with the current expectations of the students, employers and society as a whole. Many of the jobs that are now developing on the market and still will develop, as well as the multiple roles that the graduates are asked to play in society, have never been on the agenda of the universities in the past, nor on the mind of the curriculum designers. The current paper aims to assess the university engagement with community by analyzing 27 world universities best ranked in social responsibility according to QS Stars University Ratings 2016. In the paper, we discuss the extent to which different attributes of the university social responsibility are reflected among the initiatives and projects run by the universities investigated. Also, we analyze correlations between university ranking in social responsibili...