The Leading Universities’ Social Responsibility and Regional Development

Abstract

The paper deals with processes of development of a university's social responsibility in the regional community. The content of ten web-sites of Russia's federal universities and of official sites of regional authorities of their respective locations was taken as the initial empiric material. Theoretical analysis of basic viewpoints on the nature of buildup of universities' social responsibility was conducted. Basing on the socio-cultural approach to analysis of the mission and lines of the universities' activities, the authors generalized modern practices of social responsibility realization and gave insight into prospective lines of the universities' activity in the context of socio-economic development of Russian regions. As a working hypothesis, it has been assumed that it is human and professional experience of regional leaders that has considerable influence on formation of universities' and regions' mutual social responsibility for realization of socio-economic objectives of the regional development. Finally, conclusions about horizons and ways of enhancement of the role of social responsibility within the system of interrelations between universities and regions were formulated.