Jasminka Ledić

Facing New Expectations—Integrating Third Mission Activities into the University

Universities around the world have been called to (re)consider their role in society, to evaluate their mission, their relationship with various internal and external stakeholders, as well as their contribution to democratic and sustainable society. Universities are increasingly expected to be more socially accountable, to collaborate more and therefore contribute more to different public and private domains of the society. In other words, universities are impelled to assume their ‘third mission’ and to engage in various forms of interactions with local, regional, national and international business and social partners. The university pillars of teaching and research are therefore undergoing significant pressure and change. Academics are not only expected to achieve excellence in their teaching and research, but to achieve it in a way that is measurable, efficient, effective and highly relevant for the contemporary knowledge-economy and society at large. At the same time, universities have been criticized for tailoring their curricula and research as well as extending their activities by the market’s needs, thus leaving behind the civic responsibility. Authors place the issue of extending teaching and research within the wider discussion on the ‘third mission’ that thoroughly explores how universities interact with the public domain. The issues of university civic mission, education for socially responsible and active citizens, as well as the education for sustainable development, are discussed as potential answers to the pressures universities and academics are faced with on their way to become more accountable for complexity and needs of the society.

Academic staff participation in university governance: Internal responses to external quality demands

Abstract Higher education in Croatia is confronted with new trends and quality demands mostly connected with Bologna processes. It is assumed that Croatian universities with their existing governance structures, characterised by strong state regulation and weak institutional administration, cannot respond effectively to new demands. Findings of the survey on conceptions of governance at the Croatian universities are presented in the paper, with its main aim to explore academic staffs perception of university governance. The idea of the university as a “learning organisation” with strong leadership and engaged academic staff is taken as the desired model. Mapping the opinions of academic staff on the present governance structures, their role in governance issues, and making an inventory of their perceptions of strengths and weaknesses of governance processes, forms important background for reflections on adequate modifications in academic governance.

The Academic Profession and the Role of the Service Function

While teaching and research, traditionally regarded as two academic pillars, have been in the focus of numerous studies, service activity has been highlighted less. Despite the academic attention it has received lately, service is still a vaguely defined concept – or scholarly discipline – and is still searching for a more intense scientific discourse. This (sub) chapter thereby aims at contributing to the academic debate and offers some reflections on the concept of academic service, discussing data collected in 12 European countries. Highlighting the similarities and differences between senior and junior academics at universities as well as those between academics at other higher education institutions, this chapter discusses various themes linked to ‘service’: academic workload in service activities, the nature of service activities, the interconnection of service with other academic activities, ‘service character’ in academic teaching and research and academics’ views on the scholarship of service as well as their perception of institutional strategies encouraging service activities. In exploring the factors associated with the orientation of academics towards service activities, significant differences by country stand out. However, the 12-country analysis suggests that the traditional core functions of teaching and research are (still) clearly in the forefront of the academic activities, while service has remained up on the margin.

Academics and Community Engagement: Comparative Perspective from Three European Countries

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on academics’ community engagement by focusing on the nature, extent and the evaluation of academics’ community engagement in three European countries – Croatia, Germany and Ireland – and their different social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Differences in contexts can be reflected in differences in the involvement of the university with wider community. A qualitative inquiry was deemed appropriate for the research which was designed to examine the (I) the nature and extent of academics’/participants’ public engagement in the community/society with non-economic stakeholders (other than business and industry) and (II) the status of their community engagement in the frame of institutional commitment to value that kind of activities and academics’ public engagement.

Research Note: The Future of Third-Sector Teaching and Research in Central and Eastern Europe

This research note addresses issues, concerns, and opportunities for teachers and researchers of the third sector in Central and Eastern Europe, drawing on experiences in Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, and Hungary. The paper briefly outlines the development of the third sector in the aforementioned countries, and describes the current state of third sector teaching and research there. It then frames the challenges for the regions teachers and researchers, and proposes an appropriate role for the West, commenting upon the Wests relevance within Central and Eastern Europe.

Research Management Competencies: Croatian Academics’ Perspective

The research on the academics’ competencies, primarily teaching competencies, has been present for many years now. On the other hand, studies on academics’ research management competencies have been almost completely absent. The main research question of this study was: How do the academics in Croatia assess the importance of the research management competencies? The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the assessment of importance of the research management competencies on a sample of Croatian academics. The applied research method was an on-line survey, and the research instrument used was a survey questionnaire. The research included 1130 participants from seven public universities in Croatia. This paper will further analyse the differences in assessment with respect to the independent variables of sex, academic rank and research field of the research participants. The results indicate that the junior academics assess the research management competencies as statistically significantly less important in comparison with the senior academics. Additionally, men assess these competencies as more important compared with women. It should also be noted that there are differences between the academics from different research field (humanities, social sciences and arts versus natural and technical sciences). The data obtained are indicative and interesting particularly in the context of current higher education policies in Croatia, which among other issues, discuss the promotion procedures within the academic profession. In this context, it seems that research management competencies are going to be one of the important promotion criteria.