University Meets Social Responsibility Erasmus Project

Project Title

University Meets Social Responsibility

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: Social dialogue; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries

Project Summary

CONTEXT
Universities are increasingly expected to be responsive to the needs of society and to engage with a wide variety of external stakeholders. The increasing importance of this social dimension of higher education calls for a concerted effort to devise strategies and implement measures, which help establish universities as drivers of societal well-being. The key concept of University’s Social Responsibility (USR) was derived from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which offered a rich theoretical background to the UNIBILITY project to contribute to these major societal aims. However, USR itself is still at an early stage of development and UNIBILITY contributed to the development of this sector to produce an overall positive impact on society with research and higher education. USR can be defined as the strategic commitment to considering the wider society as a stakeholder of the university, and to acting accordingly.

OBJECTIVES
Therefore the UNIBILITY project aimed at strengthening the relationships of universities with their local communities through USR-activities. Specifically, the project developed training material and guidelines for universities to increase their social responsibility actively on student and staff member level.

PARTICIPANTS
The UNIBILITY project worked with staff members in higher education firstly (university managers, counsellors, researchers), secondly with students, and thirdly with local community partners (local business partners, local NGOs, regional associations).

ACTIVITIES
The UNIBILITY project produced different intellectual outputs in four phases:
– STOCKTAKING PHASE: In the first phase a Reader “From CSR to USR” was written containing 12 key texts, and an interactive “USR Toolkit of Practices” with 21 practical examples how to actively connect universities with their local communities.
– TRAINING PHASE: In the training phase 28 members of university management and staff were trained using the USR Training material in 19 working sessions. Then, 34 students were trained in a Summer School USR, using the developed student training material. Training material is available in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Slovenian.
– IMPLEMENTATION PHASE: In the implementation phase students developed 8 USR service learning projects together with project partners and actively implemented USR activities beneficial to the local communities. Also, 16 workshops and lectures with business partners and NGOs were initiated, leading to closer cooperation of these stakeholders with the university.
– ROLL-OUT PHASE: In the roll-out phase the 44-page “Guidelines for universities engaging in social responsibility” was written and disseminated at the international multiplier event with 78 participants on Sept. 22, 2017 at the University of Barcelona.

RESULTS AND IMPACT
There is clearly a growing emphasis on USR, and universities across Europe are responding to this by increased action and attention to the need to strategize USR. Therefore, there is also a growing need for training and material to use for developing such strategies. UNIBILITY contributed to producing a volume of useful materials to aid this transition process for universities. On participant level it contributed to reducing isolation of researchers and to increasing employability of students.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 177703,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT WIEN & Country: AT

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
• LJUDSKA UNIVERZA PTUJ
• UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO
• DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY
• UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES CONTINUING EDUCATION NETWORK