Social responsibility activities of higher education institutions – good practices

Abstract

An implementation of the knowledge economy influence on changes in higher education. A significant element of the concept is introducing an effective knowledge management mechanism, which lead to greater competitiveness and innovation of the university in both a Polish and international context. Therefore in the university’s strategic areas of action it is necessary to present not only scientific achievements but also social, ecological and economic factors in the form of social reports, in accordance with the concept of social responsibility and new role of universities as the organizations serving its environment. There are many examples of good practices developed by foreign universities, which interpret the university social responsibility in a different way, depending on their development strategies. So far social responsibility report has not been published by any Polish technical university. The aim of the article is to review the university social responsibility practices in the foreign universities as well as to present the stages of social responsibility reporting in the technical university on the example of AGH University of Science and Technology. The article states that AGH has developed significant number of good practices in social responsibility, which have not yet been presented in the form of social report.