A Definition-Led Structure for Capturing Third Mission at Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of a German University of Applied Sciences

Along with their activities in research and education, Institutions of Higher Education (HEI) are increasingly urged to co-operate and exchange with their non-academic environment. Moreover, the UNESCO World Action Program on ESD states that universities take over social responsibility by transferring knowledge into society. The continuum of those Third Mission Activities (TMA) contains part-time education as well as contract research, cultural, ecological and social engagement or the solution of problems of regional companies or public institutions. In that context HEI and their decisionmakers should be able to identify and structure those heterogeneous activities as a first step in order to control them as efficiently as research and education. In this paper a literature-based definition of TMA is presented and applied to develop a three-dimensional structure in which TMA might be systemized and evaluated. The tool is then applied to the case of a German University of Applied Sciences and its 167 heterogenous TMA. The data are collected in two waves of interviews with 57 providers of TMA at this institution. The results demonstrate that the suggested approach can deliver a systematic picture of the Third Mission landscape within a specific HEI. Moreover, in this case study it is shown that it is possible to structure the variety of 167 TMA detected at a HEI according to the goal systems of HEI. Applying the proposed tool can be the starting point to structure, evaluate and compare the TMA of a HEI in order to increase both their effectivity and efficiency.