Role Of Universities In Development Research Articles

The role of universities in regional development

This article examines the legal and organizational issues of the role of universities in the development of regions. The purpose of the study is to determine the models of cooperation between universities in the development of regions. Methodology. In the course of the study, logical and formal-legal methods of analysis of individual regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan were used. The legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan regulating the issues of strategic planning, ownership of universities as legal entities, missions of universities and achievement of the stated goals, the organizational and legal form of universities, corporate governance bodies, requirements for members of the board of directors of universities were studied. Along with this, this study is based on international publications in the fi eld of higher education management, the place of development strategy in achieving sustainable development goals. Originality / value of research. We built our research on the analysis of the best universities in Kazakhstan according to the results of the IQAA-2020 ratings, since it was these universities that showed good practice of interaction with the regions. Along with this, the strengths and weaknesses of such interaction were identified to determine the further development path. Findings. The research has shown that many Kazakhstani universities do not quite clearly understand the role of universities in the development of regions and the performance of a social function. The lack of a clear understanding of the function assigned to the university by the society leads to the fact that universities do not see key priorities in such cooperation. The study made it possible to draw some conclusions and develop recommendations that are important for continuing eff orts in this direction. Universities should view this interaction as an important, strategic direction for their work and build on established practices.

The Role of Universities in Developing a Sustainable Economic Model Based on Solidarity

The Methodist University of Sao Paulo, a confessional institution with three campuses in Sao Bernardo do Campo, in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region, which has 1,600 employees and 25,000 undergraduate students and postgraduate students, adopted in 2008 Sustainability as a transversal theme in its Institutional Educational Project. In 2009, started the Methodist Sustainable Program with the goal to mainstream sustainability in all undergraduate programs, in a co-creative process that included staff, professors and directors. Theory U and other similar methodologies were used in order to connect with new perspectives and attitudes that could arouse a co-creation field and a process able to reveal the connections of all expertises and knowledge produced with the sustainability area. The expectation is that this methodology continues to expand, involving university sectors and participants and oriented by educational purposes, research and community outreach. The expansion of the program led to the development of Actions Research Projects as reported in the present work, designed to consolidate a network of regional solidarity economy. The experiment enrolled 12 professors and lecturers, 20 students and 11 social enterprises linked with Solidarity Economy Network of the populous neighborhood of Montanhao in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. The development of the project and the results accomplished created concrete actions of the University that benefit peripheral areas of the Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo and could be used for promoting emergence and organization of individual and collective enterprises in other six nearby cities, that together with Sao Bernardo do Campo forms the Great ABC region, home to 2,500,000 inhabitants. Collective training of entrepreneurs in technology, human reasoning and political citizenship in the urban world were the axis of project. The results obtained can engage other groups and nearby cities, strengthening the social consciousness and regional identity.

Would ‘Good’ Values Yield Good ‘Value’? Positioning Higher Education in an Emerging Knowledge Economy

The values and the value of higher education are equally contested issues in contemporary South Africa. The affirmation of the ‘utility’ or ‘market value’ of higher education (Etzkowitz 2002), especially in the context of an emerging network knowledge economy (Castells 1996), is sometimes seen as threatening to traditional higher education values of ‘reason and culture’ (Barnett 2000). These values are considered to be a bulwark against trends of instrumentalism, populism, managerialism and performativity, currently influencing calls for the re-positioning of higher education. This paper poses the question: Would good values advance the value of higher education in facilitating social and economic progress, beyond instrumentalism, in the context of an emerging knowledge economy? Good values or ‘intellectual virtues’ (Aristotle) are seen on a continuum from civic-mindedness to institutional self-interest in the spheres of university leadership and governance. The value of higher education is considered in relation to ‘the object of life’ (Aristotle), which is presented in South African terms. The theoretical framework is informed by selected perspectives on universities in the knowledge economy context, including issues pertaining to national systems of innovation, the triple helix of university–government–industry and theory on the role of universities in development. The subject of the study is a research-active university in an emerging economy. It is argued that the value of higher education in a knowledge economy is not by definition antithetical to traditional values, but may be developed and derived from them in either an evolutionary or revolutionary way.