Abstract:

The issue of social responsibility of universities arises in its current form in the context of the development and dissemination of Corporate Social Responsibility, conceived as the voluntary contribution of businesses to a better society in a cleaner environment.

Over the last decade, public policies have faced the challenge of promoting and disseminating Social Responsibility in the business sector through major international initiatives.

As a result of these initiatives, in 2006 several academic institutions gathered around the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).
This work aims to highlight the relevant role played by universities in the promotion and dissemination of Corporate Social Responsibility as part of their own social responsibility.

In particular, we have examined whether the actions implemented and reported between 2008-2010 by higher education institutions in order to contribute to a responsible education have been continued after that date.

The methodology has followed a two-step process:
First, we carried out a thorough review of the existing literature on the subject. This included the assessment and study of the main documents and reports on the reform of higher education worldwide, issued by multilateral bodies such as the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), the World Bank, the European Commission, or those drafted by the Spanish Universities Rectors Conference (CRUE). We also reviewed other works collected in books, specialized journals and conference proceedings. Another valuable source of information was the publicly accessible databases of social responsibility reports or memorandums, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the UN Global Compact and the Observatory of Good Practices of the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI).

Secondly, we analysed the post-2010 PRME Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) reports. We also surveyed the initiatives developed by the participant universities regarding Universities Social Responsibility (USR). To this effect, we used the NVIVO software, a computer tool that provides support for mixed methods qualitative research.

Keywords:

Higher education institutions, public policies, corporate social responsibility, principles for responsible management education.