Teaching and Third Mission in Synergy: An Empirical Research on Italian and International Contexts

Abstract

This paper refers to an empirical research promoted by the University of Turin, addressing the following research question: what synergies exist between the academic missions of teaching, research and third mission. The exploratory sequential mixed design of research envisages firstly a qualitative study, involving interviews with faculty members from each Department of the University of Turin, and secondly a quantitative study, through a semi-structured questionnaire, administered to faculty members of various Italian and international universities. A content analysis of the interviews identified specific synergies between the mission of teaching and third mission, divided into three semantic categories: as an effect of third mission activities, respondents attested 1) updates of teaching contents, through interaction with external stakeholders and transfer of tacit knowledge from working and policy contexts, 2) developments in teaching delivery modalities, like changes in forms of presentation, speech formulation and discourse devices, introduction of new teaching tools and settings, and 3) active learning demonstrated by participating students, who also shared with faculty members extra-academic know-how in the field of communication and use of digital tools. The completed questionnaires were then subjected to a frequency distribution analysis. First results show that, from faculty members’ perspectives, the concept of institutional missions as three pillars is partially being overcome, in favor of that of a virtuous circle.