| Higher and middle education and research institutions have three core social tasks:
1. they produce knowledge about research and/or the (re)combination or further development of bodies of knowledge (“research”),
2. they impart this knowledge as part of their educational mission (“teaching”), and
3. they use this knowledge and apply it to tasks they perform in support of society and the economy — for example, through the transfer of ideas, continuing education, social engagement or work on solving social problems (“third mission”).
According to broad empirical evidence, all of these tasks have become massively more important over time — for economic development and the competitiveness of companies and regions, as well as for the individual employment opportunities of those qualified in such institutions, but also for solving societal and technological problems, for example in the area of climate change, resource and energy efficiency, and much more.
Last but not least, all indications point to a further increase in the importance of these tasks in the future: Companies in highly developed, knowledge-based economies can only be successful through innovation and quality, not through low prices, regardless of their sectoral orientation. Knowledge, and with it qualified graduates from higher education and research institutions, is therefore becoming increasingly important for companies, and the traditional production factors of labor and capital are becoming less important for competitiveness than knowledge and the ability to process it. This applies to both urban and rural regions, and to agriculture as well as industry and the service sector. In addition, the boundaries between the economic sectors are becoming increasingly blurred, which makes a broad educational perspective and thus higher education courses even more important in order to be able to link knowledge resources of different provenance. |