The social dimension of Higher Education is one of the overarching themes of the Bologna Process. Furthermore, recent studies confirm that there is an emerging interest in University Social Responsibility issues (Larrán 2012) an even a recognition of the term, USR as “overarching” regarding the social dimension of Universities. However, most Higher Education institutions are still reluctant to fully implement USR strategies and they have embraced different faces of social responsibility. This means different approaches, mechanisms and actors. Therefore, there is an urgent necessity to collectively reflect and exercise dialogue in order to understand and pursue a more critical and integrated perspective. The project aims to carry out a deep analysis about what universities around the EU so far have understood as USR to shape a common vision able to face the challenges of the current society. Moreover, due the relevant of the issue for all the society, the delimitation of the term USR, as well as its implementation, cannot be only carried out by the universities, but it must involve all the stakeholders (Companies, Schools, ONGs, policy makers, European Institutions, etc.). The previous projects have mostly considered only the internal responsibility of the university, leaving aside the other actors that have influence in the decision making process or in the labour market. Hence, the project aims to promote the synergy and the transference between HE (teachers, students and staff) and all the mentioned stakeholders, strengthening the links among them. The students, as the futures professionals of our society, should learn during their university education, not only the technical knowledge they will implement in their career, but also the education in social values which will allow them to become responsible citizens. They have the need to be aware which challenges they will face after according to the current situation, so they will benefit from a transversal approach towards it. Teachers, researchers and the rest of the university staff must be included in this procedure, reinforcing their roles as social responsibility trainers and active member of the community. Hence, the project also takes into account the needs of a transversal knowledge about USR for this target group. The project implements an inclusive bottom up approach in which it includes not only students, but all the members of the university community plus all the relevant stakeholders that will participate in awareness of the social responsibility, by creating synergies and transfers between them. The preliminary work implemented in the frame of the EU-USR project (527209-LLP-1-2012-1-RO-ERASMUS-ESIN) shows an imbalance in terms of actions regarding the social dimension among European universities and regions, and shows the need to: • Better understand the term, University Social Responsibility, both inside (University staff and students) and outside (companies, Unions, schools, ONGs, policy makers, etc.) HE institutions. • Increase HE institutions' commitment towards the community in which they operate, promoting the inclusion and the participation of the stakeholders in the process. • Work on a higher involvement by incorporating USR strategies in the student’s curriculum, as a transversal subject, and not only inside the universities but also with the transfer and exchange with the rest of the community stakeholders. Our pursued objectives are: • To review current data and literature on USR within Europe, with a special focus on the ways European universities commit themselves, raise the awareness of the community and deal with the curriculum of their students, in order to obtain the best practices achieved in each region, so the project will create innovative actions for the implementation of the USR. • To conduct a mapping of socially responsible organizations to promote their inclusion in the project and the synergy between those organizations and the participant universities. • To promote a political-institutional commitment for the inclusion of USR with a transversal approach in the university faculties. • To analyse barriers and drivers and define a road map of possible interventions to support Socially Responsible Universities • To design and test a package of transversal contents to enrich the students’ curriculum from a socially responsible overarching approach. The students will get not only theoretical knowledge, but also a practical experience, carrying out territorial activities in the stakeholder organizations. • To propose a set of raising awareness actions to be implemented both inside (University staff and students) and outside (Companies, ONGs, policy makers, Unions, etc.) HE institutions.
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