Discussion

"The Third University Mission" international conference, dedicated to the development of cooperation between universities and society, was held from November 30 to December 1, 2018 in Moscow.

The conference events were attended by over 260 delegates from 23 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, United States, and United Kingdom. The great interest in the conference was driven by the growing need in studying the third mission of the university, i.e. its contribution to the development of society. The discussion of the third mission continued at the thematic sections of the conference. Below are the conference proceedings of the speakers:

The MosIUR initiative was supported by leading Russian, Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Japanese and Turkish universities. The first draft methodology, released on 6 March 2017, was developed as a result of a series of expert dicussions with a total of 69 Russian universities and 17 rector councils, as well as a number of international experts, contrubuting to it. Its criteria were discussed at more than 10 conferences and seminars as part of events of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics, RANEPA, IREG Observatory on Academic Rankings and Excellence, World Bank and RAEX rating agency.

After a trial run on a data set of some 200 Russian universities, the first draft methodology was discussed by the MosIUR International Expert Council at the meeting on 8-9 June 2017 in Moscow. The experts, representing universities and research centers of US, UK, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, and Russia, looked into applicability of the draft methodology criteria across nations and education systems.