Re-Significations of the Institutional Governance Resources of the «Third Mission» of the Universities: The Case of the Technological and Social Development Projects (PDTS) of Argentina

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze a governance instrument for the university’s «third mission», the Technological and Social Development Projects (PDTS) in Argentina, focusing on the institutional resources that it makes available to academics to promote greater use of knowledge. The focus of the work involves a literature review regarding the concepts presented together with an empirical analysis nourished by documentary sources and interviews with actors involved in the management of the instrument. For this purpose, the work is organized into six sections. In the first place, the question of the third mission of higher education is discussed in relation to its possible definitions and, secondly, the notion of governance of the third mission is historicized, highlighting those key concepts that characterize the  governance of these activities. In third and fourth place, the contextual elements that give rise to the emergence of the PDTS instrument are presented and the origin, definitions and scope of the instrument are characterized. Finally, the fifth section presents those institutional criteria on which the PDTS introduce resignifications, proposing a differentiated governance of these activities. Finally, in the sixth section some of the rehearsed discussions are recovered.