The third mission of the university in the context of war and post-war recovery

Abstract

In the conditions of the war of russia against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian universities are playing roles that were not characteristic of them in peacetime. To the greatest extent, this concerns the university’s third mission, serving society and responding to its urgent needs. The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize new meaningful directions for implementing the third mission of the university in the conditions of war and post-war reconstruction. The study uses quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analysis combining various methods, in particular, quantitative and dynamic analysis of publications and citations, keyword analysis, cluster analysis and content analysis of publications.The study’s results proved the lack of conceptual studies devoted to the role of universities in the war and post-war reconstruction. The main clusters of implementing the third mission of universities and the existing and potential areas of activity of Ukraine’s universities during the war and post-war reconstruction that belong to them were determined. In conclusion, it is substantiated that a new dimension of the mission of universities is being formed, which is at the stage of its formation and needs time for the necessary transformations. Depending on the consequences of the war in Ukraine, it can be a separate cluster of the third mission of universities, and the selection of a new fourth mission of universities, dedicated to peacebuilding and the role of the university during the war and post-war recovery. AcknowledgmentYuriy Petrushenko gratefully acknowledges support from the Kirkland Research Program. The researchwas supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (No. 0121U109553).