Universities - Communities: strengthening cooperation

Unicom är ett Erasmusprojekt som syftar till att hjälpa ukrainska universitet att utveckla sitt arbete med den tredje uppgiften.

General Objective

To enhance universities’ social role through boosting university-community engagement leading to the elaboration of state policy on supporting the third mission of universities for ensuring social cohesion, resilience, sustainability and prosperity in Ukraine.

Specific Objectives

• To develop and discuss national policy on enhancing the third mission of universities and community-university cooperation (indicators: a policy paper; a road map, national guidelines, a research published);
• To develop the model strategies for relations between universities and communities based on their needs and aimed to enhance civic activism and citizen engagement based on principles of equality, solidarity, non-discrimination and inclusion and to pilot them in the HEI’s and communities involved (indicators: 7 on Ukrainian universities’ visions on the cooperation with the communities in terms of their social responsibility and university development strategies;
• To foster the cooperation between the project target groups and stakeholders on university-community cooperation based on European experiences and practices in the field of inclusion and gender equality, cyber security and digitalization, ecology, and civic education, etc. (indicators: community empowerment program, 3 hackathons, 2 volunteering programs);
• To increase the social responsibility and community engagement of universities through raising their capacities in the area of community development and local leadership (indicators: joint reports on the needs of the communities and their expectations from the cooperation with the HEIs);
• To foster the cooperation between the project target groups and stakeholders on university-community cooperation based on European experiences and practices (indicators: research/experience exchange visits to European partners and internally for experience exchange and cooperation; the number of participants at the project events and mobilities performed; training programs and relevant teaching materials for the project teaching component, a future summit);
• To ensure the qualitative project implementation is in line with best European practices as to the academic content and project management;
• To ensure proper cooperation between PI, target groups, and stakeholders in order to implement the project dully and timely to report to European and national authorities;