higher education in the world 6

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Higher Education in the World 6 Report

Towards socially responsible HE institutions, globally and locally

engaged

UNESCO Chairs Meeting

Barcelona, 29th September 2015

#UNESCOChairs #HEIW6

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Higher Education in the World Report 6

Towards socially responsible HE institutions, globally and locally engaged

How can/could higher education institutions get involved and have

impact on the development of their local and regional society

answering to competitiveness demands and, at the same time, in

achieving the global agenda of pressing human challenges?

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GUNI’s Main Project 2015-16

Analyse the dual responsibilities of universities at local and global scale

Identify best practices and provide recommendations to both the academic

community and public officials on how universities can improve and make

compatible cultural, social and economic impact at local and global levels, and

Explore the potential conflict, or intrinsic difficulties, in addressing both local

demands of society based on the race for global competitiveness and local and

global demands to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society (at local

and global scales).

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Current Challenges of Higher Education

Based on “THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FUTURE: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL STAKEHOLDER LEARNING ORGANISATION?”

Allan A Gibb

Local / regional demands

Global pressing issues

Tensions on the (local) Mission of

the University

Promote upward social mobility Capture new

sources of resources

Stand out and be noted

Motor of economic development

Scientific impact

Transdisciplinary innovation

Open Access to Knowledge

Relations with Enterprise/

SMEs community social

development

Global Competition in Partnership

Student's univeristy experience

Media relationship/involv

ement

MOOCs and ICTs teaching learning

Entrepre-

neurship

Improved employability

Access to employment/dual

curriculums

Approved by UN in September 25, 2015

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Universities ?

• The focus on regional/national competitiveness = a zero sum game?

• What about universities’ global responsibility, to the planet and to humanity?

• Is it compatible with the game of world domination?


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Global Impact

(Common good of Humanity)

Economic (and Social) impact “on mine”

(“National” common good)


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The Glocal University

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Global Impact

(Common good of Humanity)

Economic (and Social) impact “on mine”

(“National” common good)

Enterprise/Productive Sector

Socioeconomic stakeholders

Communication groups

National/Regional Policy

UN

Cooperation Agencies

NGOs

Globally involved universities

Glocal University

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Higher Education in the World Report 6 The global and local approaches to society challenges are the duality that will

focus the 6th Report.

Universities are identified as key players from both perspectives.

They have the singular responsibility of giving adequate answers to both

legitimate needs and interests:

to contribute to overcoming the global challenges of the world, that are

summarized by the UN Goals for Sustainable Development (SDG),

and to contribute to the development and competitiveness of their

immediate societies.

Are the two approaches compatible?


Higher Education in the World Report 6 The main premise can be decomposed in three elements.

First, there is a compromise between the global and local engagement of

universities that only universities by themselves can resolve.

Second, there is an imbalance on the legitimate demands towards universities

that affects its own definition, organization and action.

Third, the natural concentration of action in response to the “local” demands,

and their pre-eminent role in the competitiveness strategy of nations/regions

can lead to a winners-losers scenario (zero-sum competitiveness game), with the

possibility of a somehow negative impact on the global issues.

Only universities with glocal vision and mission

can resolve this potential conflict.



Only universities with glocal vision and mission can resolve the

potential conflict.

Under these hypotheses, GUNi proposes to explore tensions and

experiences, challenges and opportunities, limitations and

restrictions, and to analyze the key elements that enable HEIs to

adequately fulfill their local and global public good responsibilities. HEIW6 will focus on providing practical examples of structures and

processes The final objective will be to provide a comprehensive

analysis of the characteristics of this global and local engagement

and with a set of recommendations


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1. Explicit shared mission

Academic freedom guarantees that “Institutions of higher education are

conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the

individual teacher or the institution as a whole (the common good depends

upon the free search for truth and its free exposition)”.

This means that the first basic element in the definition of any kind of

university engagement is that the governance system must enable

academia to take part in defining the university’s mission. The overall

commitment of universities should be explicit in their mission and vision,

and understood and accepted by the academic staff.

The Glocal University: building blocks


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2. Engaged leadership and engaged academia

The role of leadership is fundamental if bridges are to be built between university

and civil society. The intrinsic characteristics of the academic community constitute

obstacles and challenges to civic leaders and require universities to set up an internal

strategy to promote, measure and recognize the participation of teaching staff in

the social role of universities. Even though the engagement of university leaders is a

must, it is clearly insufficient if it is not assumed by academia personally.

Need for an institutional strategy that allows individual members of the teaching

staff to contribute to the university’s social responsibility in a variety of ways

above and beyond their regular teaching and research activity. The overall activity

of the teaching staff should be measurable and acknowledgeable.



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3. Strategic positioning

The university has an overall impact on society

through a practically infinite set of collective and

individual activities. These activities are usually

classified as teaching, research, knowledge

transfer, service to society, etc., and strategic

goals are set for each of them. The main difficulty

for complex institutions such as universities lies in

the coherence and the coordination of what is

conceived sectorially but which has a global

effect, full of synergies.

The Glocal Vision


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4. Measurement and monitoring

“You can’t improve what you can’t measure.” Whereas research impact has been

normalized in many scientific areas and dominates the measurement of the outputs

of research activity of universities and other knowledge institutions, the impact of

teaching is much more elusive and the impact on society of the overall activity of a

university even more so.

Despite all the difficulties, universities and the knowledge community have to make

the effort to monitor the evolution of their impact on society and, even more

importantly, communicate to the general public and to the authorities consistently

and regularly.



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Ultimately, the ideal position is one of total

commitment:

HE institutions must be key regional institutions.

They must seek the development of the

neighbouring society through teaching, research and

the transfer of knowledge, and engage in the

establishment of regional strategy in collaboration

with the local authorities, social partners and civic

representatives.

But they must also aspire to be institutions

committed throughout the world that educate

open-minded, critical and committed citizens, and

which, through their research activity, also help

define global lines of action that will lead to a

fairer, more sustainable world.

The Glocal Vision



Towards Socially Responsible Higher Education Institutions, globally and locally engaged

The issue will be developed following four lines of action:

Level 1: Group of international experts. From the GUNi experts(report 5) and experts on

universities and regional development.

Level 2: ACUP group of experts. Identification and constitution of a group of experts (around

20). A joint paper on the glocal university in Catalonia

Level 3: UNESCO Chairs. Working group that gathers some 10-20 chairs, to share their

work in this area. The drafting of a joint positioning document.

Level 4: Universities and City. (Pending negotiation with Barcelona City Council - new

government team). The cities and universities on the local and global levels.

The projects are independent but have a common objective and would contribute to the HEIW6.

The editorial team, will act as a general supervisor of the evolution of the projects and will decide

on the final contribution of each one in the HEIW6.




The specific aims HEIW6 are to:

1. Explore the potential conflict, or intrinsic challenges, in addressing both societal demands based on

the race for global competitiveness and to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society at

local and global level.

2. In this regard, the Report aims to analyze the dual responsibilities of HEIs at local and global scale

and how to serve and deal with both at the same time.

3. Reflect about how glocal engagement should be included in teaching, learning, research and

institutional activities, government and leadership.

4. Describe and analyze the current concept of university social engagement and social responsibility in

both levels, global and regional.

5. Identify differences and similarities within the different world regions, illustrating peculiarities from

several countries and providing a territorial view about how HEIs are locally and globally engaged.




The specific aims HEIW6 are to (cont.):

6. Identify how the range of the different social actors are involved in the glocal engagement

practices and interact with HEIs.

7. Illustrate how HEIs have linked with society at local and global levels, identify and presenting

the different experiences, mechanisms and structures and best practices on glocal engagement

from worldwide

8. Provide recommendations on how higher education institutions and systems could in practice

sustain this double level of engagement successfully.

9. Propose steps for advancing the contribution of higher education to achieve an effective and

compatible local and global engagement, helping advance societies and building a more just,

equitable and sustainable society.


Level 3: UNESCO Chairs working group

Towards What is your experience and point of view in regards to Socially Responsible

Higher Education Institutions, globally and locally engaged?

Can UNESCO Chairs act as a bridge for making compatible the local/global approaches?

In which level (locally/globally) UNESCO Chairs activities are mainly engaged?

Can UNESCO Chairs help HE institutions in fulfilling its social responsibility?

Can UNESCO Chairs experiences and practices at local/global level contribute to avoid this

local/global dichotomy?

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Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau

Sant Antoni M. Claret, 167

08025 - Barcelona

+34 93.401.70.09

[email protected]

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THANK YOU VERY MUCH