Author:
Corazza Laura,Marengo Francesco,Torchia Daniel,Sargiacomo Massimo
Abstract
AbstractEuropean University alliances, formally introduced in 2019, are rapidly expanding, as more than 400 million euros have been dedicated in 2023 by the European Commission to foster international collaborations to promote new forms of development within and beyond university communities. By undertaking interventionist research on UNITA – Universitas Montium, one of the largest European alliances, representing 160.000 students, this paper aims to illustrate how a university alliance is tasked with developing an internal assessment methodology to account for the societal benefits created by the project for the academic and civil communities. The elaboration of the assessment tool to assess the contribution to higher education and societal sustainable communities has brought researchers to discover etic and emic implications, revealing the existence of an accountability layer in which the international alliance directly engages with rural and mountain communities in marginalized areas. This research marks a significant advancement in the field of higher education sustainability, providing both a novel analytical perspective on the benefits of university alliances for the development of local sustainable communities and a methodological tool for their assessment.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference74 articles.
1. Torchia, D., Fresta, J., Corazza, L. & Certomà, C. New European Bauhaus for a circular economy and waste management: The lived experience of a community container garden at the University of Turin. Sustainability 15, 914 (2023).
2. Biancardi, A. et al. Strategies for developing sustainable communities in higher education institutions. Sci. Rep. 13, 20596 (2023).
3. Corbett, A. Universities and the Europe of Knowledge Ideas, Institutions and Policy Entrepreneurship in European Union Higher Education Policy, 1955–2005. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
4. Craciun, D., Kaiser, F., Kottmann, A. & van der Muelen, B. Research for CULT Committee: The European Universities Initiative, First Lessons, Main Challenges and Perspectives (2023).
5. Stensaker, B., Maassen, P. & Rosso, A. The European University Initiative: Investigating alliance formation and initial profile developments. Tert. Educ. Manag. 29, 229–243 (2023).