The Societal Impact of Higher Education: Third Mission Assessment in an Italian University

The Third Mission (TM) of universities, denoting their contribution to society beyond academic teaching and research activities, is gaining international attention and importance as a crucial pillar of higher education institutions. This is due to its nature of directly addressing societal needs such as the pressing challenge of promoting sustainable development. Driven not only by requests from public and private funding agencies but also by the need to increase accountability and improve the management of third mission activities, new methods to assess and measure its impact beyond mere economic implications, including social impact evaluation, are strongly needed. This study adopts an Interventionist Research Approach (IVR), utilizing a case study methodology in which researchers actively engage with the subject by applying their theoretical knowledge to contribute to a practical problem. The case study is used to advance the literature. The longitudinal case study is based on the “Project ImpatTo,” which took place at the University of Turin (UniTo) over 12 months starting in September 2022. The project aimed to support the university’s departments in assessing and measuring the social impact of their third mission activities considering the upcoming national Evaluation of Research Quality (VQR) Exercise. The goal is also to spread the culture of impact and competencies in research impact self-assessment, monitoring, and measurement to valorise research impact. This study presents the two main results of this intervention: a social impact course targeted at various figures of high seniority level from each university’s department, and the presentation of an impact assessment tool made available to all departments for demonstrating the positive social impacts of their third mission activities. Finally, this chapter discusses the barriers, drivers, and challenges that have emerged among academics when dealing with TM self-assessment and valorisation.