Governance of the Third Mission at a Multi-Campus University

Book excerpt: This book appeals to higher education scholars from various disciplines and practitioners looking for an overview and in-depth insight into cooperative study programs (CSPs). The CSPs combine elements of higher education with elements of professional work and illustrate how a teaching-related third mission achieves a socioeconomic contribution through its underlying stakeholder interactions. In Germany, CSPs are a growing phenomenon and, at the same time, a niche in higher education with approximately 100,000 students. Higher education scholars identified CSPs a challenge to higher education governance despite the simultaneous lack of empirical data. In this vein, this book pursues the question of how stakeholders influence the governance of the third mission in the case of CSPs. The study in this book refers to the “prime” example of CSPs at a German university of applied sciences—the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University. The analysis revealed that four stakeholder groups are salient and influence the governance of the CSPs. These include professors, industry representatives, students, and representatives of government and higher education policy.