The Third Mission of Universities in Icelandic Society: An Analysis of its Extent and Emphasis

Abstract

The objective of our research is to analyse the extent of third mission engagement in Iceland, the main collaboration partners of academics, and barriers to collaboration. Hereby, we develop and modify scales regarding third mission activities (TM) of academics, and regarding academics’ perceptions of barriers to collaboration. For the research, a survey was sent out to the total population of 674 permanently employed academics at the University of Iceland in early 2021. Findings reveal that academics mostly collaborate within their own department and with foreign universities, but the least collaboration is with Icelandic or foreign companies. Most academics are positive towards increasing collaboration but tend to lack the time or opportunities. Overall, participation in TM is not very high, and on our innovation measure it is very low. Most common activities relate to lectures, public debates or talks to non-academic organisations. Women are more likely to take part in educational activities, and men in innovation activities. When analysing TM by academic position, professors score higher in all activities except educational activities. Academics at the School of Humanities are least likely to take part in any activities linked to TM. Teaching is the main perceived barrier to increasing collaboration, and we observe a gender difference where women perceive teaching and commercialisation activities as higher barriers than men. For non-professors teaching is a higher barrier than for professors. Academics belonging to the School of Humanities regard external factors in their environment as higher barriers to collaborate than do academics in other schools.