Analysing the literature on university social responsibility: A review of selected higher education journals

In the last 30 years, different economic, political and social changes have taken place in the university sector and this has led to an extensive reform to meet the new societal challenges that these institutions are facing today. This emphasises the social dimension of universities and their important role in society as educators of future leaders and policy makers. This reveals the need to integrate social responsibility principles into the mainstream functions of universities. In view of these comments, this paper offers a review of the literature about university social responsibility during the period from 2000 to 2015. The objectives of the review are to: explore patterns in publication outlets; collect, scrutinise and critically analyse the current literature on this field; to identify gaps in the literature and make recommendations for further research in this field. To accomplish this task, data were collected from 15 specialist academic journals that focus on higher education.     

Transparency and its determinants at Colombian universities

Over the past decade, one of the demands upon public institutions, among which we find universities, has been for transparency and improvement of accountability. In this context, Colombian universities are introducing different methods of management and governance aimed at addressing the demands of society generally in relation to transparency and quality in the activities that they carry out. The objective of the present study is to analyze and evaluate factors which affect the level of transparency at Colombian universities based on the rectors’ perception of these universities. The results obtained indicate that the level of transparency depends on the type of governance which is adopted, the level of prestige and the level of delimitation of its identity. Other questions such as size, budget or the public or private nature of the university have not proved to be significant explanatory factors of the degree of transparency.     

Books and articles of academic interest

Books and articles of academic interest     

Distance Education: The Experience of the University of Puerto Rico/Río Piedras Campus

The Río Piedras campus is the flagship institution of the University of Puerto Rico. It has made several attempts, throughout its history, to establish a distance education environment. None have succeeded. A new grass-roots movement is developing, which is conscious of the past history. Nevertheless, it is moving forward because it is situated in a conscious process of organizational culture change. Theory E and Theory O, developed at the Harvard University School of Business to analyze organizational change, is used to analyze the change process occurring at this academic institution.