Reinventing the third mission of higher education in Germany: political frameworks and universities’ reactions

Abstract

Higher education systems are changing due to trends of funding pressures, increasing social demands and growing numbers of students. Even though teaching and research are still considered as the pivotal functions of universities, other activities such as technology transfer, lifelong learning or social engagement have broadened the scope of their actions. These activities, labelled as third mission, are supposed to strengthen the impact of science in society and epitomize the changing role of universities. In Germany, the federal government and the states announced different programs aiming to foster these activities, e.g. the BInnovative Hochschule^or Real-world Laboratories. In this article, we first want to develop a definition framework of third mission. In two further steps we analyze how politics and policies in Germany have framed the concept in the last few years and how public universities are responding to this in their formal structure. We use approaches of neo-institutional theory according to which organizations such as universities create institutionalized structures and reflect institutional rules in order to maintain legitimacy. As an example of organizational formal structure we analyze mission statements of public universities. Using computerbased qualitative content analysis, we assess to what extent these universities take up the third mission. Our results show that most universities mention the third mission in their mission statements. However, the focus is mainly limited to economic impact and (technical) knowledge transfer. Much less emphasis is put on civic engagement or further education issues.

Public Diplomacy and Social Impact of Australian Student Mobility to the Indo-Pacific: Host Countries’ Perspectives on Hosting New Colombo Plan Students

“…Universities are increasingly expected to engage with wider society, integrate social responsibility into their missions, and meet new societal needs. While universities' traditional missions of teaching and research continue to be essential, other dimensions such as technology transfer and social engagement have emerged as critical components which are often referred to as the third mission of higher education (HE) (Berghaeuser & Hoelscher, 2020). The expanding role of social engagement of HE beyond its traditional missions to address important economic, social, environmental, and public health challenges contributes to increasing HE's impact on society (Berghaeuser & Hoelscher, 2020;Bernardo et al, 2012).…”

Testing Surgical Face Masks in an Emergency Context: The Experience of Italian Laboratories during the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

“…This approach was a clear example of implementation of the so-called university “Third Mission” [ 27 , 28 ] in an emergency context, which required concentrating the limited resources (time, personnel and equipment) on the more promising prototypes, also keeping the other two mandates represented by teaching/education and research activities active.…”

“…The researchers have been called not only to perform tests, but also to provide consultancy, information and assistance to the private companies who were facing the challenge to reach the compromise between breathability and filtration efficiency required by the standard. Such an action represents one form of technology transfer as well as a form of societal engagement, both elements of the “Third Mission” of the university as described in the literature [ 27 , 28 ].…”

“…Therefore, all laboratories have implemented some procedure to provide a prompt response to the demand for testing coming from the manufacturers/importers. Three different strategies were adopted by the different labs participating in this study: This approach was a clear example of implementation of the so-called university "Third Mission" [27,28] in an emergency context, which required concentrating the limited resources (time, personnel and equipment) on the more promising prototypes, also keeping the other two mandates represented by teaching/education and research activities active.…”

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“…become more efficient) as a result of their market demand orientation (Monopolkom-mission 2000, passim). As a result, out of a total of 396 German HEIs, 21 universities are private, and 13 are run by churches (Berghaeuser and Hoelscher 2020). Consequently, the German higher education market will be more competitive in the future (Orr, 2007).…”