Within the implementation of the ERASMUS +KA 2 CBHE project “Universities Communities: strengthening cooperation” UNICOM No. 101083077 a study visit “Third mission, what are the steps and what are the duties: University of Genoa” was organized for the representatives of Universities – consortium members. It was held at the University of Genoa (Genoa, Italy Republic) from May 26 to 31. The Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs was represented by first vice-rector of the University, Yehor Nazymko, and head of the international cooperation unit Viktoria Moskalenko.
The purpose of the visit was participating in the meeting of heads of higher education institutions and representatives of international cooperation units for further planning of the project implementation; discussing the concept of equipping the Center for interaction with the community on the basis of the Universities -consortium member, developing policy and methodology for assessing its further functioning; presenting to the organizers and participants of the event the results of the project completed tasks that implies the University’s activities regarding implementation and strengthening of the third mission.
During the event, the algorithm and the main stages of further implementation of the project were discussed, the main criteria and quality guarantees of project implementation in communities were summarized, and attention was also focused on the procedure for developing small group strategy. The role of decentralization was defined as one of the main objectives regarding the strategy of strengthening the third mission. The speakers focused on the fact that the University is an important scientific and cultural landmark and an intermediate link between local communities and the globalized society. These are higher education institutions that contribute to social, cultural and economic development by means of direct application, accumulation and use of knowledge, as well as through the initiative of continuous learning. The main tasks of the third mission are to promote the society development through the transfer of knowledge and technologies to social and industrial spheres, to increase the social and educational role of the University, to promote activities and development processes aimed at stability, inclusion, acquisition of entrepreneurial skills and active citizenship.
In their speeches, Yehor Nazymko and Viktoria Moskalenko emphasized the priorities of the Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs in implementing the project mission, which are determined as purposeful use and transfer of academic knowledge to solve various social problems, the transfer of technologies and innovations in the form of cooperation with the state structures. According to the results of the work, the role of the DonSUIA was seen in realizing the key needs of communities, which consists in ensuring the security component that is protection of human rights and national security.
According to the results of the event, the participants of the study visit unanimously supported the idea of involving all the University team members in the process of creating Centers of interaction with the community and approved the algorithm for further implementation of the project.
