DESIGNING A TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR STUDENTS IN AUDITING UNIVERSITY SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The link between social responsibility and higher education can be considered from both a “top-down” or “bottom-up” perspective – it can influence student values through responsible education as well as high-level competition in world-class universities leads to them inferring the need to improve their attractiveness to key stakeholders (Collini, 2012; Alonso-Almeida et al., 2015; Nejati et al., 2015; Belyaeva et al., 2018). University social responsibility (USR) puts forward that universities “should go beyond the core functions of teaching, research, and service and voluntarily act beyond legal requirements to promote the public good and environmental sustainability” (Lo, Pang, Egri, Li, 2017). The aim of this paper is to present a case study revealing student experience in the formation of a training programme designed to engage them as active agents in their learning about USR auditing. The methods used for collecting research data are structured written reflections and interviews of students and data analysis method – qualitative content analysis. The case study was conducted within a framework of Erasmus+ project “Certification in Social Responsibility Audit, CertSRA/ESSA”. The project aims at creating a more flexible approach to student learning, learning by doing, assessment and certification across Europe’s higher education sector, in a way that will enhance graduate employability; develop the concept of facilitation of learning as a key to effective engagement of students as active agents of their own learning; measure the way social responsibility is utilized in Universities. The auditor training programme is designed as a two-phase process organised in a blended mode: an online preparatory phase, i.e. “pre-course”, an intensive, face-to-face auditor training and evaluation. The preparatory phase is carried out by potential students-auditors in their home institutions and applying virtual learning environments or online tools to carry out desk research about institutions (universities) where social responsibility audits will take place. The face-to-face phase is intended for actual training on student audits, auditing of social responsibility in host institutions – universities. The learners-students are expected to understand the methodology of USR auditing. They will be able to manage the audit procedure (orientation to the audit procedure, arrangement of the logistics, determination of the auditability of materials, negotiations of the contract, assessment of data, analysis and generation of evidence, preparation of a review, report and presentation, renegotiation, and the final audit report). The final phase is related to the assessment of learning and the completion of a reflective learning log and provision of feedback, defined as “lessons learned” that might indicate room for improvement of the audited university. The results of qualitative content analysis show not only a high level of enthusiasm of the students for the USR project, but also a mature understanding of and support for its overall aims and objectives together with a sense of shared ownership of the project and potential future advocacy for its legacy. Student experience of learning by doing in USR auditing offered insightful, reflective and constructive feedback on the improvement of the training programme design.