The “Third Missionary” Impact of Universities Through A Regional Example

We live in a dynamically changing world where the role of higher education can also be highly variable. It is already a social and economic expectation for higher education institutions to expand their core activities, in addition to education and research, with a third mission. Academies not only have the opportunity, but also the responsibility to deal with the challenges of civilization and nature, to take on social roles and to set an example therefore the appreciation of environmentally conscious fourth generation universities has been examined. Despite the potential suction effect, examples of the presence of narrower regional embeddedness have been sought for and supported with by a primary research with 1450 responses.

The answer to the question of where a specific university in Hungary, located within the reach of triple border and thus physically international global universities, ranks among the generation universities has been looked for. Does it play the third mission role in a highly competitive environment? The conclusion to the question is that, considering the 150 km mobility catchment area, the socio-economic relationship and regional embedding of higher education and the region are strongly present. The regional socio-economic embeddedness is further supported by dual training.

The suction effect of the surrounding regions highly depends on the adaptation of the management methods and tools by the university, such as the service company model, quality vs. mass training; globalization locality, marketing tools, loyalty, communication, IT applications, graduation model, latency adaptation. The change in the model of higher education in Hungary is currently developing, therefore the paper could serve as a null basis for further researches and analyses.