Continuing Education as Part of the Third Mission

An analysis between strategy, output, outcome and impact at Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences

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Forschungsprojekt der FH OÖ „Weiterbildung als Teil der Third Mission an Hochschulen“

Das Forschungsprojekt hatte zum Ziel, sich mit folgenden 3 Fragen auseinanderzusetzen:

  1. Is Continuing Education and LLL strategically visible at the individual Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) and can increased activities for this area be derived from it?
  2. Are there correlations between input, output, outcome and impact in the field of Third Mission at UAS in the sub-field of continuing education, and if so, what are they?
  3. Can practical indicators be derived for measuring the performance of Third Mission activities in the sub-area of continuing education (CE)?

Dazu wurde folgendes inhaltliche Design gewählt:

  1. Qualitative content analysis (acc. to Kleinig)*
    1. Identifying relevant Keywords
    2. Create content categories = Code Book
    3. Execute and check quality categories (validity, reliability, objectivity)
    4. Screening Homepages and Documents of all Austrian UAS (=21): Vision, Mission, Strategy, Annual Report
  2. Analysis and Categorisation of Screening-Results
  3. Online Survey of Staff-Lectorers of 2 UAS (N= 472, response: n=105, 22%) – Identifying motivation for and impact of Third Mission

Auszug aus den Results

Visibility:

  • 20 von 21 have Vision and Mission Statement visible on their HP
  • 11 strategy documents on HP – there of 90% CE mentioned
  • The other half of strategic documents is not publically visible
  • The correlation was visible on the documents found – BUT: there cannot be an empirically grounded conclusion for all UAS for this area
  • Full range of TM and/or LLL is not shown on any HP
  • The undertaken survey gave an overview of the engagement within the CE-sector of two/one UAS (more than one third are engaged)
  • Motivation inside and outside the own organization became visible (high intrinsic motivation!)

Projektpartner*innen:

  • FH St. Pölten

Projektlaufzeit: 2021

Ansprechpersonen: Elke Gornik und Daniela Nömeyer

Projektaktivitäten

Konferenzbeiträge / Publikationen:

Gornik, E. & Nömeyer, D. (2021). Continuing Education as Part of the Third Mission. An analysis between strategy, output, outcome and impact at Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences. EAIR 43rd Annual Forum 2021.