No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The Role of the Finnish and Australian Universities in Achieving a Better and More Sustainable Future for All
Abstract
This chapter adopts an international perspective and discusses the policies and activities that the universities both in Finland and in Australia have undertaken in order to strengthen and develop the prosperity for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all. Social responsibility is approached from the broad-based perspectives – especially how research and development (R&D) activities of universities can be seen as platforms for university–community partnerships. This chapter first opens up the driving forces behind the universities’ social responsibility. The second section portrays how social responsibility is implemented in the Finnish and Australian universities. The following section addresses the significance of universities’ R&D activities in promoting social responsibility. Finally, the chapter ends with the discussion on the action models, which supports the social responsibility in university–community partnership.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
While innovation should be about socioeconomic transformation of
society, concerns have been raised about its negative externalities
including growing disparities within and between regions.
Arguably, Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) offers a
potential solution to address these concerns. However, in theory,
its conceptualization and operationalization remain ambiguous.
Further, in practice, this makes its application to regional
development difficult. Accordingly, this study first conducts a
systematic literature review of conceptual papers on RRI. It
identifies themes and categorizes them into four domains: drivers,
tools, outcomes and barriers. Second, these domains are applied
to regional innovation studies. The paper contributes to an
increased understanding of RRI and its applications to sustainable
regional development as well as how RRI and regional innovation
studies can benefit from each other.
KEYWORDS: Responsible research and innovation; systematic literature review; stakeholders; region; policy; regional development
Corporatisation of universities has drawn parallels between contemporary universities and business corporations, and extended analysis of corporate social responsibility to universities. This article reports on case study of university–community engagement with schools and school communities through youth engagement programmes to enhance democratic principles in student leadership and raise aspirations for university education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Data from over 1200 respondents suggest that university–community engagement produced positive outcomes for individual student participants, schools and school communities and also benefited the university in terms of brand recognition and good standing in the community. This raises questions about the social responsibility of universities as agents of change to entrench society’s fundamental values of democratic participation and social justice.
http://www.lamk.fi/tki-toiminta/julkaisut/c-artikkelikokoelmia-raportteja-muita-ajankohtaisia/Documents/InnoBee_eng_v2_300813.pdf
In the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) system,
competence-based education is the leading paradigm for innovation, both at
the system level and at the level of learning environments. This article
provides an historical analysis of the development of competence-based
education in various countries and explores the concept of competence and
its popularity. Possible pitfalls with respect to the concept of competence,
standardisation, school and workplace learning, determining learning
activities, assessment of competencies, changing teacher roles/identity and
competence-based management will be discussed. Taking these pitfalls into
account, roads for future development will be sketched. A learning policy
connecting governance, practice and research is believed to be the most
fruitful way to develop flexible VET systems that are suited to the emerging
knowledge-based economy.
Universities everywhere are being forced to carefully reconsider their role in society and to evaluate the relationships with
their various constituencies, stakeholders, and communities. In this article, stakeholder analysis is put forward as a tool to assist universities in classifying stakeholders and determining stakeholder salience. Increasingly
universities are expected to assume a third mission and to engage in interactions with industrial and regional partners. While incentive schemes and government programmes try
to encourage universities to reach out more to external communities, some important barriers to such linkages still remain.
To fulfil their obligation towards being a socially accountable institution and to prevent mission overload, universities will have to carefully select their stakeholders and identify the ‘right’ degree of differentiation. For the
university, thinking in terms of partnerships with key stakeholders has important implications for its governance and accountability
arrangements. For the future of the universities we foresee a change towards networked governance and arrangements to ensure accountability along the lines of corporate social responsibility. In order to further explore some of these concepts and to empirically investigate the tendencies suggested here, this article
proposes an ambitious research agenda for tackling the emerging issues of governance, stakeholder management and higher education’s
interaction with society.
Recent developments in competence-based education have motivated institutions of vocational education and training (VET) to
improve the links or connectivity between learning in school and learning in the workplace, which has been a problem for decades.
In previous research, a theoretical framework describing the underlying aspects of competence-based education was developed.
In this study, three aspects of this framework were used to analyse connectivity between learning in school and learning in
the workplace. These aspects were: i) authenticity, ii) selfresponsibility, and iii) the role of the teacher as expert and
coach. Three stakeholder groups (i.e., students, teachers, and workplace training supervisors) involved in secondary VET programs
in the field of life sciences in the Netherlands were questioned on these aspects. Based on their interviews, it is concluded
that these aspects provide information about the process of connectivity. Because stakeholder groups hold different conceptions
of workplace learning and often do not communicate adequately about mutual responsibilities, the implementation of these aspects
of competence-based education has not significantly improved the connectivity situation. Nevertheless, these aspects of competence-based
education can guide stakeholder groups in making clearer agreements about mutual responsibilities, which may improve connectivity
in the future.
KeywordsCompetence-based education-Workplace learning-Connectivity-Life sciences
A second academic revolution, integrating a mission for economic and social development is transforming the traditional teaching and research university into an entrepreneurial university. The Triple Helix thesis postulates that the interaction among university-industry-government is the key to improving the conditions for innovation in a knowledge-based society. More than the development of new products in firms, innovation is the creation of new arrangements among the institutional spheres that foster the conditions for innovation. Invention of organisational innovations, new social arrangements and new channels for interaction becomes as important as the creation of physical devices in speeding the pace of innovation. This paper draws for data on interviews conducted by the author in the USA, Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Denmark.
An entrepreneurial university must undertake two tasks: it must train future entrepreneurs, persons who will found their own businesses, and also develop an entrepreneurial spirit in students in all subject areas. Second, it must operate in an entrepreneurial manner itself, organizing business incubators, technology parks, and the like, involving students in these organizations and, through them, assisting students and graduates in the founding of businesses. Financial assistance to start-ups should eventually be repaid to the given university from the profits made by the maturing companies and then be reinvested in new start-ups. Thus the entrepreneurial university will contribute to the development of its region, and through co-operation with other entities, to economic development in general.
As universities respond to a prolonged period of economic rationalism there appears to be resignation, for the most part, that the role of a university is not what it once was. By adopting the operational strictures of economy, efficiency and performance, many universities are behaving like and being run as though they were a business. The term ‘corporate university’ now carries much meaning and has been the subject of significant discourse over the last decade. Resource limitations, political influences and competitive pressures are commonplace with implications for the way in which a university can fulfil a role in society, however that is defined. In this paper we consider the notion of corporate citizenship and ask whether this concept is relevant to the role of a university in Australia and New Zealand. In these countries universities are substantially (although progressively less so) funded by the government and are public service entities. The application of corporate citizenship to universities serves to highlight the duality of these institutions, which operate like corporations, and yet have more obvious historically based obligations to society. The comparison also suggests that as corporations are becoming more aware of the long-term benefits of a societal role for business entities that universities appear to be moving in the opposite direction. With a few exceptions academics have been reluctant to engage in public debates. They have progressively lost control of their working environment. The risk is that the public interest will have no place in the corporatised university of the 21st century unless academics increase their critic and conscience activities.
Regions are becoming focal points for knowledge creation and learning in the new age of global, knowledge-intensive capitalism, as they in effect become learning regions. These learning regions function as collectors and repositories of knowledge and ideas, and provide the underlying environment or infrastructure which facilitates the flow of knowledge, ideas and learning. In fact, despite continued predictions of the end of geography, regions are becoming more important modes of economic and technological organization on a global scale.
The role of the university in accelerated learning and innovation as a regional ecosystem integrator
Corporate governance: Disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large companies and groups. Amending Directive
- European Parliament
Statistics > Science, Technology and Information Society > Research and development > Tables
- Statistics Finland
Guidelines for universities engaging in social responsibility
- The UNIBILITY consortium
Partnership between higher education and working life-Developing an action model through action research. Refereed Academic Paper. Innovations for Competence Management Conference
- A Häggman-Laitila
- L Rekola
Human development indices and indicators: 2018 statistical update
- United Nations Development Programme
Sustainability reporting
- Australia Parliament Of