European Plaza (theme 2012)

…universities and their importance for social, cultural and sustainable development of our contemporary society

Universities provide a service of public interest. They actively take part as independent thinkers in national and international debates. Are organisations of importance for the social and cultural development of society and by doing this play an important role in development and maintenance of a responsible society which understands the importance of social and sustainable behaviour and of our European heritage. But are we good and active enough ‘to sell’ the importance of this and our role in it to the wider public?

The following questions could help to start/be a guideline for discussion:

• Give examples of university projects focussing on social, cultural and or sustainable development of our society
• Are there universities who have chosen to claim their role in these kind of developments by making it part of their mission statement?
• Is special attention given to communicating these projects to the general public or to specific stakeholder groups (for example different government levels, NGOs)and how is this or should it be done?
• Do universities focus on the right target groups/what are the most important target groups when it comes to promoting the importance of universities in this area of development?
• What kind of projects aiming at social, cultural or sustainable development could you yourself think of that would be interesting to communicate?
• Do you know examples of universities that very broadly engage in public debate? How do they manage to do this and how visible is their activity for the public?
• What is best strategy for a university to make the academic community aware of the importance of being active and spending time on participating actively in public debates and doing this as representative of their organisation?
• What is your department doing (and how are you doing this) to improve the active involvement of your university in public and political debate?
• Did you use journalists, lobby etc? Did you use internet social media? How did you get the professors involved (or other stakeholders)?
• Are there initiatives on national level/do universities cooperate to make this part of the function of universities more visible?

In times of increasing economic difficulties at national level, there may be growing doubts that universities are a priority, when other worthy causes (eg health care, pensions) face money cuts. Good communication should aim at making this risk less threatening.

• Are big cuts in HE funding underway in your country? Or being discussed?
• Are some universities in bigger trouble than others? Why?
• Is there an institutional lobbying group (Rectors’ Conference etc) negotiating? And if so, do they have a communications agenda?
• What is your university doing or planning to do about that (reorganization, mergers, other)?
• What are the biggest challenges/risks communications is confronted with coping with this issue? And do we need special knowledge to start working on this issue (theoretical knowledge/ knowledge of special means of communication)?

…Universities as key players in economic development

European universities will always need public financial support. But will society be prepared to keep on paying (investments are becoming less and less). Is society convinced that taxpayers’ money is well spent? Universities have to put more effort in actively communicating the importance of research. Without this research and of course without educating young researches society will miss all kinds of innovations that can be transferred to society and ’translated’ into important new economic products and the improvement of welfare in Europe. Valorisation, the translation of innovations into products, should be more than bringing research results to the market. Valorisation should also be supported by strong communication efforts. If not people won’t recognize that economic development is often initiated by universities. Are we aware enough of this fact and do we put all the necessary effort in it to communicate this to the taxpayer who is in the end the financer of a big part of our universities? The following questions could help to start/be a guideline for your discussions:

• Give examples of important products that originate from innovation and research within universities
• Are there specific universities especially active in transferring innovation to the market? Which universities?
• Are they also strong in communicating their role and how do they do this?
• Do you have an example of a university that has been able to communicate effectively that a certain successful products wouldn’t have been introduced without research on university level?
• Are there universities that really focus on communicating their importance in the area of valorisation and entrepreneurship?
• Is the ranking of universities important for valorisation?
• What is your department doing (and how are you doing this) to communicate the successful translation of innovations into valuable products?
• Did you use journalists, special partner organisations etc? Did you use internet social media? How did you get your message across?
• Are there initiatives on national level/do universities co-operate to make this part of the function of universities more visible?

Universities do not exist for their students only. They are also part of a local (city or regional) environment and these entities shape one another to some extent. This is particularly visible in smaller cities with important universities (from Coimbra to Lund), but all over Europe in any context universities and local communities must find new ways to interact. Universities provide prestige and and are a factor of economic development to the territory they are based in, but they cannot stay in a world of their own. The “contract” with their relevant community requires more and more sharing of resources, both economic and human.

• Give examples of activities of your Communication department not aimed at recruiting more students but at creating local visibility and strengthening the bond with the local environment.
• Did you use internet social media?
• How did you get professors (or other stakeholders) involved?
• Give examples of successful community projects. Are they “site-specific” (so that they would only work in that particular area) or universally valid?

Don’t hesitate to give your opinion or to send in ideas how to handle this situation. We are of course also interested in best practises (successful and active universities, networks of universities or national HE associations).