UNIBILITY Guidelines launched in Barcelona
The final output of the UNIBILITY project, Guidelines for Universities Engaging in Social Responsibility, were launched by Prof. Maria Slowey and Dr Mark Wallace of HERC at the 1st EU-USR Conference in the University of Barcelona on the 22nd of September 2017.
The 1st EU-USR Conference was organized by the UNIBILITY consortium as a final multiplier event for the project, and, as well as launching the Guidelines, also featured keynote addresses from Josep Vilalta of the GUNi network and Bernie Quilligan and Rhonda Wynne of Ireland’s Campus Engage network, among others. The event saw the participation of about 80 people from across Europe and the world.
The Guidelines were written by staff members from the UNIBILITY partner universities in Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain and edited by Mark Wallace of HERC and Katharina Resch of the University of Vienna.
In the Introduction to the document, the relevance of USR within the current context is dealt with, and some background to the term is given. Thereafter, the Guidelines are divided into four principal sections:
- Key principles of the USR process
- Training key staff members
- Reaching out to relevant stakeholders
- Involving students in USR
Each of these sections deals with an important stakeholder in the USR process: management; teaching and research staff; business and NGOs; and students, respectively. The sections are short and are designed for accessibility to all interested parties.
The Guidelines have been disseminated to relevant university staff, students, policy makers and community groups across Europe, and are freely available in PDF format on the UNIBILITY project website.
