To Be or Not to Be Responsible? Academic Research and Social Responsibility

Publicly funded universities have been under increasing pressure to provide evidence regarding the economic value of their core activities, not least when it comes to the social benefits accrued from the research mission. This study offers a glimpse of Nordic perspectives on the social impact of research from the positions of policymakers, university leadership, and academics. From a macro perspective, the paper investigates to what extent Norwegian policy actors rely on the excellence/relevance discourse in their plans for the future development of higher education. At the meso level, the study explores how academic leaders make sense of internal and external pressures (drivers and strateg…