A New Communication Form of Higher Education: University Social Responsibility and Its Visibility on Web Sites

Abstract

Universities worldwide have begun to acknowledge the significance of civic engagement and incorporate their campuses and communities into these programs. Consequently, social responsibility is increasingly acknowledged as a fundamental element of the higher education system, particularly inside institutions. The World Conference on Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century, formulated at the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in Paris, along with the Communication from the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education, adheres to the principles of the 1998 Declaration and the objectives outlined in the Bologna Process, all underscore the increasing acknowledgment of social responsibility as a fundamental aspect of universities. This study will first present the conceptual framework of social responsibility to elucidate the transition from corporate social responsibility to university social responsibility. It will also examine colleges as a unique entity that requires the adoption of a social responsibility plan. This will be accomplished by examining the literature on the notion of University Social Responsibility (USR). The study subsequently examines the official websites of 21 state and private universities in the capital city of Turkey, to assess the prominence of social responsibility programs. Consequently, a few universities exhibit their social responsibility practices on their websites.