A way to deepen the relationship between University-Society

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges that the university has to face is that of knowing in what way it is related to society; that is to say, to know if the university is effectively relevant to the society that contains it.

By “relevance” it is meant the level and type of relationship between the university and society, the former acting from its functions of teaching, research, and extension. This relationship has several aspects to it. First, it has to do with the analysis and interpretation of the society’s interests, needs, and demands. Second, this relationship depends on the satisfaction of those needs that the university might achieve. Third and last, this link has to do with the generation of self-reflection processes that might take the intervening actors to analyze the relationship.

As a way to know and assess the relevance of the university project within the university itself and in the environment where it is contained, the National University of Salta is developing an exploratory research project that combines quantitative and qualitative methods. This research uses non-random samples of people within and outside the university. The research techniques that are used are surveys, observations, documentary analysis, individual interviews, group interviews, in-depth interviews, and reflection workshops.

The goal of this research is to reconstruct the image of the National University of Salta that is held by different groups. On one hand, one group is formed by the different social actors that interact within the university: students, faculty, administrative staff, and authorities. On the other hand, the other group is formed by those who belong to the community where the university is inserted: graduates, neighbors, employers, businessmen, professionals, and political, non-governmental, union, and institutional representatives.

The interest in getting to know the university’s relevance from the people’s opinion and perception is to open spaces that were closed up to this moment. This research is rooted in the idea that the university is interested in what the community thinks of it, and, above all, that the research findings will be used within the university to create self-reflective processes in the university actors. Through these self-reflective processes, the strengths and weaknesses, the positive and negative aspects, will be analyzed. Thus, behaviors and ways of action will be revised, and communication channels with the environment will be opened.