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2005:24

Higher education and cooperation with the surrounding community

The report (809 kb)
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The aim of this evaluation was to provide perspectives and knowledge about the ways in which higher education institutions cooperate with the communities around them. Another objective was to contribute to developments within this ?eld. The evaluation also involved identifying the higher education institutions at which this cooperation is most effective.

The Higher Education Act has contained a stipulation on interaction with the surrounding community since 1997:

“The institutions of higher education shall also cooperate with the surrounding community and give information about their activities." (Higher Education Act, 1.2 [1992:1434])

This evaluation reveals that cooperation is undertaken with different objectives: to enhance democracy, to stimulate the development of knowledge and growth and to improve educational programs. The higher education institutions cooperate with the general public, the commercial and public sectors.

The results of the evaluation show clearly that many higher education institutions have effectively integrated this cooperation into their research and teaching. Cooperation with the surrounding community has undergone considerable development during the last ten years. But nothing is so good that there is no room for improvement.

It is clear that there are often shortcomings in the routines for monitoring these endeavors. A better system of incentives would make it easier for the higher education institutions to cooperate with the community.

Less priority has been given in recent years by both the authorities and the higher education institutions to the forms of cooperation intended to enhance democracy. It is important to restore the status of this objective.

Swedish National Agency for Higher Education  Visting address: Luntmakargatan 13  Box 7851, 103 99 Stockholm
Phone: 08-563 085 00  Fax: 08-563 085 50  Email: hsv@hsv.se