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Higher education in the World 6. Towards a Socially Responsible University: Balancing the Global with the Local
Abstract
Towards a Socially Responsible University: Balancing the Global with the Local aims to analyse the dual responsibilities of universities at local and global level, exploring the potential conflicts and intrinsic difficulties in addressing both the local demands of society based on the race for global competitiveness and the local and global demands to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society (at local and global levels).
There is a dual perspective on global affairs: on one side, competition between national and regional economic systems when developing their respective societies still predominates, and on the other, there is the global sustainability of the sum of all these developments, which is gaining momentum. Higher education institutions (HEIs) can be identified as key players from both perspectives and, thus, have the singular responsibility of helping to provide appropriate and adequate responses to both legitimate needs and interests: i) to address the global challenges of the world, which are very well summarized by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ii) to contribute to the social, cultural and economic development and international development of their societies. The current organization of higher education in the world urges universities to compete on the global stage for students, faculty and research contracts. At the same time, they are expected to contribute to the economic development of their localities and to sustainable and inclusive global and local development.
From this perspective, it becomes necessary to make the dual engagement of universities explicit: with the immediate needs of our local societies and with the global challenges of the world, of our global society. The study of this duality has been the objective of this 6th Higher Education in the World (HEIW) GUNi Report, ‘Towards a Socially Responsible University: Balancing the Global with the Local’.
... Outside the EU, awareness levels vary significantly. In some regions, sustainability in universities is perceived as a secondary priority compared to economic development or job creation (Grau et al., 2017). EU universities often emphasise global collaboration, participating in cross-border research and exchange pro-ECONOMICS AND ENVIRONMENT 1(92) • 2025 grams to address global sustainability challenges (Kozirog et al., 2022). ...
Sustainability has become a cornerstone of strategic priorities for higher education institutions, particularly in addressing global challenges. This study investigates the perception of sustainable university among international students, focusing on the critical determinants shaping their evaluations. Employing a questionnaire-based methodology, this study investigates the perspectives of students from both European Union (EU) and non-European Union (non-EU) countries, with a focus on identifying critical dimensions including environmental campus operations, education and awareness, research and innovation, as well as governance and performance measurement frameworks. Findings highlight significant cultural and geographical differences: EU students give higher ratings to the sustainable activities undertaken by their home universities in every area studied than their non-EU counterparts. The largest differences are found in the perception of activities related to campus policies, education and governance. A smaller difference is visible in the variables related to basic campus operations, where the p-value indicates less significant differences. The differences in ratings may be due to different cultural backgrounds, educational experiences, expectations and the level of integration with the European educational and social system.
... The sustainable entrepreneurial university is instead more focused on the quadruple helix approach (Carayannis & Campbell 2009) as they consider a larger variety of ecosystem actors, including citizens, and are interested in building trust relationships among all collaborators. Finally, considering the university and its relations with society, the entrepreneurial university is described as more focused on meeting societal needs mainly for growth and innovation, whereas the sustainable entrepreneurial university is committed to shaping a better future society by trying to accomplish its developmental role through the transformation of society -also based on the production of new knowledge (Shapiro 2005;Grau et al. 2017). ...
Universities support regional innovation and sustainable development through research-based partnerships with local ecosystems, creating new business models addressing global and local societal challenges. In this shift towards a sustainable entrepreneurial university, the Start for Future ( SFF ) international alliance promotes entrepreneurial and innovation culture across Europe, through entrepreneurship tertiary education and business development. This qualitative case study investigates the characteristics and implications of stakeholder involvement in a cross-European context (with the SFF project as the object of investigation) including contribution to regional development and innovation. Results show the SFF ’s significant potential for developing trained human capital acting entrepreneurially in an innovative and sustainable perspective, through a collaborative, transnational, cross-sectoral, and interdisciplinary community of engaged partners. Practical and policy implications include the need to cultivate long-term, bottom-up relationships among partners, both regionally and internationally, and to establish institutional long-term strategies to consolidate the network over time and ensure effective contributions from all.
... The 6th World Higher Education report on a socially responsible university by the Global University Network for Innovation (Grau et al., 2018) argues: ...
The university is struggling to keep up with the demands of a fast-changing world, and, as a system, higher education generally does not respond quickly to change. Its institutions produce valuable knowledge about social issues and problems, but this is so often not followed by action constructively using that knowledge to effectively address these problems. Shaping the Future of Higher Education generates knowledge to enable researchers, teachers and leadership in higher education to learn how to positively embrace constant change through innovative, collaborative, systemic, critical and creative thinking and action. Through a participatory and transformative paradigm, it strives to create knowledge to enable everyone involved in higher education to move from talking about change to actioning it. The book presents possible structures and processes for learning, teaching, research, community engagement and leadership. It provides pathways to shape a higher education system that is inclusive and student-centred, that promotes knowledge democracy, and is responsive to and relevant for dealing with pressing social issues as they arise. The contributing authors of this book are internationally renowned researchers with years of experience in their respective roles in higher education. Their ideas will benefit all who are involved in, concerned about, and/or actively promote most effective higher education practices.
... Convergindo com esforços internacionais de produção de materiais, referências e guias (Grau, 2017;SDSN, 2017) na UnB e analisamos dois casos representativos, dando destaque para os indicadores de memória institucional, difusão, mapeamento, adaptação institucional e inovação. Na quarta parte, apresentamos uma Avaliação acerca do Programa Estratégico UnB 2030. ...
Em 2015, todos os Estados-membros das Nações Unidas adotaram a Agenda 2030, composta por 17 Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) e 169 metas que já têm impactos marcantes na vida em sociedade de forma global. Este texto busca apresentar criticamente como a Agenda 2030 e os ODS são incorporados na Universidade de Brasília (UnB) como parte do processo de territorialização da Agenda 2030. O artigo utiliza como metodologia uma pesquisa exploratória, a partir da revisão de literatura especializada, bem como uma abordagem SWOT acerca do comportamento institucional. Como resultados, sistematizamos experiências que nos permitiram entender o processo de incorporação dos ODS como forma de impulsionar as capacidades da UnB em ser agente de mudança social.
... Universities across the world are becoming increasingly interested and active in fighting social inequality, restoring trust, and strengthening social cohesion at a local level (e.g., Dempsey, 2010;Grau et al., 2017;Farnell, 2020). These universities aim to engage with and provide benefits to the communities in which they are located using activities such as service-based learning, participatory research, and student volunteering (e.g., Sandmann, 2008, 2010;Humphrey, 2013;Goddard et al., 2016). ...
As a growing number of Dutch higher education institutions become increasingly interested and active in university–community engagement, questions have arisen about their motivations, goals, and activities in this area. This paper aims to provide insight into the factors driving universities’ community engagement and how this is manifested in the Netherlands, considering, in particular, the role of marketization and corporate social responsibility. It thus offers an empirical foundation for understanding university–community engagement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with major stakeholders in university–community engagement at four Dutch universities, including members of the executive boards. It was found that university–community engagement shows several similarities to corporate social responsibility and is based on a complex mix of value-driven, performance-driven, and reaction-driven motivations. Three relationships between marketization and university–community engagement are identified, characterizing university–community engagement as a counteraction against marketization, an expression of marketization, and a result of marketization.
... A university-community partnership can be formed and transformed into various activities or projects. One of the forms is through various collaborative activities between universities and communities such as service-based learning and participatory research project (Compare et al., 2022;Grau et al., 2017). Service learning is an instructional strategy which is carried out through the combination of community service program and academic learning between students, faculty, and community members to identify and address issues. ...
The Emancipated Learning Program (Program MBKM) initiated in 2020 by the Indonesia's Ministry of Education and Culture seems to align with and encourages the practices of a university-community partnership in Indonesian higher educational system. This paper aims to explore how the Emancipated Learning Program (Program MBKM) aligns with the concept of a university-community partnership and to propose a typology of partnership and involving communities based on the implementation of the Emancipated Learning Program (Program MBKM). As a conceptual paper in nature, the paper provides an overview of theoretical foundation on university-community partnership in relation to the Indonesia’s Emancipated Learning Program. It is expected to shed lights on the theoretical foundations of a university-community partnership as well as to enrich the typology of a university-community partnership. Although the paper is case-specific, it still opens an opportunity to use in wider contexts.
... OC is a system that plays an integral role in adopting innovations. From the theoretical perspective, the innovative climate is the accumulation of cultures, values, and beliefs within the organizational environment that can foster the development of innovations (Grau, Goddard, Hall, Hazelkorn, & Tandon, 2017). Madhukar and Sharma (2017) cited Moos (1994), indicating the following factors of OC: workers' involvement, support, cohesion, autonomy, task orientation, clarity, managerial control, and innovation. ...
Emotion matters in human experience. It shapes how an individual interacts with their
world. Increasingly, emotion is garnering attention in adult education contexts as a core
factor influencing wellbeing and learning. It has relevance in the developing professional’s
student experience where individuals find themselves enmeshed as active participants in and
across a labyrinthine of systems and engaging in person-environment interactions that
benefit, challenge, or threaten their student journey. Emotion has a principal role in these
interactions, harnessing multiple organismic sub-systems to orchestrate a response according
to how the individual construes the interaction. This publication-based PhD examines the
legitimacy of these ideas on two levels. First, through an interrogation of five stand-alone
publications that each explore the role of emotion across varying adult student populations
and second, as an amalgamated project guided by three research questions. The amalgamated
project succeeds in a deeper level of examination than previously achieved by the individual
articles; it provides new insight into emotion’s role and relationship with wellbeing and
introduces an agentic framework for shaping developing professionals’ student experience.
The body of work coheres through an epistemological orientation toward Holism.
Holism captures the complexity of the developing professionals’ student experience as a
product of person-environment interactions, shaped according to biopsychosocial-cultural
processes that are directed by emotion. Holism drives the project’s theoretical framework and
favours a meta-theoretical examination and methodologically pluralist approach governed by
mixed methods. This permits the examination of the developing professional’s student
experience as a complex phenomenon; it results in a reconceptualization that is revelatory,
moving beyond a descriptive measure of satisfaction to disentangle and distil the multiple
layers of interactions that shape the experience. A meta-synthesis approach is used to
examine the amalgamated publications and results in an explanatory emotion-wellbeing
process map that is bespoke to this population. It also informs the design of a practical
emotion-wellbeing framework, centralising wellbeing as a responsibility of all, and
promoting agentic orientations through attention to teaching and learning contexts that
promote control, certainty, and coping. The framework provides a foundation for future
research.
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