State of the art of university social responsibility: a standardized model and compared self-diagnosis in Latin America

This paper aims to provide information about the state of the art of University Social Responsibility (USR) from a regional perspective, based on a theoretical and practical development proposed by a wide net of Latin-American higher education institutions (HEIs): the USR Union of Latin America (URSULA). The state of the art was performed through a two-year measurement process (2018–2019) conducted in 80 HEI from 12 Latin-American countries. The state of the art was constructed through a self-reported diagnosis concerning four HEI scopes of action, twelve goals, and sixty-six indicators to measure the accomplishment of USR goals. The study's primary results were twofold: first, the verification of a dynamic model for USR consensual management and second, the understanding of USR's challenging nature for standard practices in HEIs. This study's results contribute to creating a practical framework for USR measurement based on a regional context (Latin America). Moreover, this research underlines the discrepancy between HEIs' social performance and the need to commit to the 2030 UN sustainable development goals. This is the first study to examine the state of USR in a region such a Latin America