European Network of Socially Responsible Universities Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Network of Socially Responsible Universities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Context

HEIs in Europe have been strategically transformed in recent years. First, their provided students with university courses and degrees. Second, They undertook research activities and more recently, there are many universities that carry out actions and programs linked to the social responsibility (SR). Despite this change in the mission of universities, USR is a concept that has no common definition and is not generally recognised by public institutions. Besides, there are no implementation methodologies, good practices or evaluation tools that have been identified.

Objectives

The USR-Net project focused on meeting two specific needs of USR by designing two guides with theoretical and practical content:
– To establish a common understanding of USR, by taking into account the different points of view inside and outside Europe and to identify the best practices carried out in each dimension of USR. The project provided a theoretical framework for the development of a strategic plan for USR and a follow-up and monitoring mechanism
– To elaborate a manual of theoretical and practical intervention for universities, aimed at increasing the stakeholders’ awareness of USR. The commitment of students, professors, researchers, staff, civil society organizations, companies and other groups is crucial to achieve relevant results in terms of the impact of SR actions
At the same time, the USR-Net project has carried out actions to improve the USR of the HEAI’s involved in the project (Partners and participants).

Number and profile of the participating organisations

The USR-Net consortium consists of 9 organizations: four European universities from Belgium, Italy, Spain and Finland, with experience in USR, have brought to the table their vision, experience and skills; and others who added scientific experiences on SR, quality processes, communication, dissemination and advocacy skills. Regarding the participants, the USR-Net targeted HEI’s and their networks engaged in USR. (XX European Universities and XX Latin American Universities). Among the latter, a large number is part of the Social Responsibility Regional Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean, belonging to UNESCO. In addition, policy makers, teachers, researchers and students from the above-mentioned universities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders from European universities participated in the USR-Net activities.

Main activities

The USR-Net project has had 4 chronological phases of implementation:
1. Definition of USR (IO I). The main objective is to prepare a guide that defines the concept of USR. To this end, a literature review, a statistical analysis and interviews with experts from across Europe were carried out. Finally, the guide collected visions and experiences on USR and proposed a broader definition.
2. Awareness-raising actions (IO II). Following the same methodology of the IO I, raising- awareness actions dedicated to European university stakeholders were analised and the guide collected good practices by categories good practices and recommendations for the implementation of USR through the collaboration with the HEI stakeholders.
3. USR actions. In the four universities partners, actions were developed to promote USR. Among them, workshops were held with students, professors, researchers and technical staff to raise their awareness, promote collaborative actions among the stakeholders and improve the impact of social responsibility in each university.
4. EUSRDays: sustainability and dissemination. The project organised a two-days event “the European University Social Responsibility Days” (EUSRDays), in which more than 100 representatives of universities participated. The first one was an event in the European Parliament to study how EU can support USR through its funding instruments. On the second day, workshops were organised to get to know university best practices and to design project proposals in collaboration with interested universities.

Results and impact

The main results achieved are:
– Consensus on the definition of USR with 3 dimensions: academic, research and territorial
– Publication of a catalogue of international recommendations and good practices in USR (strategies, programmes, projects and actions)
– Creation and/or dynamization of networks of universities committed to SR
– Presentation of projects on SR through international calls for proposals
– Advocacy actions to make USR a priority of the policies and funding instruments of EU

Long-term benefits

The USR-Net project contributed to the development of SR in HEIs and reached some goals:
– Universities committed to SR and willing to collaborate with each other in the future identified and connected
– Available model of USR to advance in the following challenges: strategic implementation and evaluation.
– Public recognition of the university need of institutional support to improve their capacities with the territory increased

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 132645 Eur

Project Coordinator

CONEXX – EUROPE ASBL & Country: BE

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD DE CADIZ
• Innovation Training Center, S.L.
• MILITOS SYMVOULEUTIKI A.E.
• INSTITUTO DE SOLDADURA E QUALIDADE
• Innovate4Future – Centrul pentru Solutii Educationale Avansate
• FORUM TREES, Trabajo, Educación y Equidad Social
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA