Journal of Education and Human Development

A New Paradigm in Higher Education: University Social Responsibility (USR)
Lidia Giuffré; Silvia E. Ratto

Abstract
Higher education solely for personal development can not be considered acceptable nowadays, as the underlying sociocultural changes to the knowledge society have accelerated an evolutionary process and education was affected by democratization movements. The objective of the work was to analyze and remark the role of University Social Responsibility (USE) as a relevant issue in the compromise of the modern institutions of Higher Education. USR can be defined as the ability of the University to disseminate and implement a set of general principles and specific values, using four key processes: Management, Teaching, Research and Extension. As it is still an open field, most of what the universities practise as USR are within the framework of quality management and accreditation. The Social Area Projection in the universities generally involves technical assistance activities and institutional support through students volunteering. Two application examples conducted with students and teachers in the Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires, are presented as an example of the proposal mission

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