Such an outlook of planning for further development of the third mission of Ukrainian Universities can be established at the current stage of implementing the best European practices and strengthening their own positions in the community and on the market of educational services, at least by the consortium of the Universities participating in the ERASMUS +KA 2 CBHE project “Universities and local communities: strengthening interaction” (UNICOM No. 101083077).
The workshop “The Third Mission of Universities: Methodology of Assessment and Approaches”, which took place on September 23, 2024, in an online format, was opened by the speakers – experts from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, who admitted the need to use a systematic approach to the development and assessment of the third mission of Universities. An expert Oleksandra Laktionova noted that these processes are complicated by a diversity of vectors of development of the third missions of Universities in communities, which affects the indicators and indexes of assessment, in a non-academic sphere including.
Maryna Mruha pointed out that orientation to the result is the basis for assessing the University’s activities in the development of the third mission. Also, the state expert spoke about the expediency of using in Ukraine an Italian experience of financial stimulation for the development of the third mission of Universities, which was investigated during study visits to the University of Genoa (Italy) and the experience of Greece, in the aspect of studying the results of the University in dynamics, as compared not with other HEIs, but with its own previous results to identify further growth points.
The expert offers to summarize the evidence base for the stimulation of the third mission in the Universities of the consortium, as well as, to resolve within the framework of the project the issue of the need for the Ministry to assess the results of the development of the third mission of Ukrainian Universities, being aware of possible negative factors such as formalization of the process, etc.
To some extent, the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education is already assessing the third mission of Universities, as Nataliia Stukalo, deputy head of the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education, told. In her report, she mentioned that during educational programs accreditation, an analysis of the factors of interaction with the external environment is carried out Also, the National Agency supports various University initiatives for sustainable development in the post-war period, as well as “green” projects and those aimed at ensuring peace. The Agency compiled its own ranking of Universities, 33 of which meet the global goals of sustainable development.
The main speaker of the workshop – Professor Thorsten Kliewe, head of the Accreditation Council of Entrepreneurial and Involved Universities (Germany), spoke about modern approaches to the assessment of the third mission of the European Universities, German in particular.
The European Universities worked fruitfully on the formation of the third mission and the indicators that determine its efficiency and impact on the community. A disputable and important is the issue of how the community understands the activities of modern Universities and how their impact on the development of communities can be measured: “making impact – measuring impact”. The speaker provided a comparative analysis of entrepreneurial and involved Universities, admitting that the former are focused on capitalization and economic effect, while the others focus educational and scientific activities on the needs of business and society.
The analysis of the model for achieving results in the development of the third mission, presented by the professor, confirmed the need for changes in the decision-making system and strategies of the Universities in order to achieve the goals set not only by the Universities, but also by the community. Additional benefits are included.
At the end of the first session, professor T. Kliewe provided a link for the Universities participating in the workshop to conduct a self-assessment of their own current third mission, and also noted that in 10 years, the Universities focused on the third mission will become among the leading ones.
The second session of the workshop was devoted to the assessment of entrepreneurial universities, whose activities are mainly focused on: sustainability, networking, business, startups, etc.
The indicators used to assess the development of the University’s third mission depend on the specifics of the University’s activities. However, in its activities the accreditation committee, represented by the professor, is guided by theoretical models, ratings, self-assessment results and feedback from the external environment.
In conclusion, professor T. Kliewe admitted that several approaches should be used to assess the activity of entrepreneurial Unversities, keeping in mind that all Universities are different, so the indicators should be relevant to the University activity.
During the workshop, professor T. Kliewe presented approaches regarding the assessment of the involved Universities. The professor’s report was focused on the reasons for the involvement of the Universities in the development of communities. He spoke about the framework of cooperation for the development and recognition of the third mission of the Universities, comparing how things are in the USA, Great Britain and Germany.
At the end of the workshop, each of the participants had an opportunity to ask questions and draw conclusions about the development of the third mission of their own University with the help of the self-assessment program proposed by Professor T. Kliewe.
The organizers expressed their gratitude to all the participants and emphasized the importance of the workshops as dissemination events that allow not only to improve one’s work, using new knowledge but also to involve other institutions for systematic processing of issues of transformations in the system of higher education of Ukraine.