Actutalmente, universities should not only efforts related to teaching, research and university extension, but must also attempt to generate positive impacts on the economic and social development of the geographical areas where they are inserted, emerging as a hub of major study
aspects of education for development and college .
At that stage of social change, according to Alejandra Boni
(2006:101) the development of new models of universities better sensitized to the needs of society, should be expressed in the existence and development of institutions of higher education "oriented
human development need not be breeding, but transformative, meaning change the momentum of substantial changes in social institutions, politics and economy, with important implications for relations between social groups and classes, and how to create wealth, status and power . "
Among the features of a university transforming this author points are:
• Public good: related to the existence of adequate levels of public funding to ensure that higher education and research are accessible to all people, not just for those who can afford to pay for college. In any case, it means giving up private resources.
• Universal: make every effort to remove impediments social, economic and cultural access to the university that may have the most disadvantaged groups, trying to reach as many people as possible.
• Autonomous: With respect to public authorities, economic interests media, religious and cultural, which give full freedom to question and criticize all those aspects that are related to human development and are not right or working properly, always exercising that autonomy within the margins of the social responsibility of the university.
• social relevance: development of a long-term orientation from the perspective of the needs of society, not only immediate aspects related to the satisfaction of the labor market, but oriented to complex social problems such as poverty eradication, deterioration of the environment, illiteracy for example.
• Comprehensive Quality: related to the assessment of human impact of the university, focused on the impact of the university in the expansion of the functions and capabilities of all members of the university community (students, teachers and administrative personnel and services) and those influenced by the activity of the university: business, third sector, public and private institutions.
According to the approaches of OECD
(2008), a key aspect for the proper contribution of higher education institutions to positively impact the human and social development, is related to their contributions to sustainability with which that development should achieved, both within the university in each of its main functions (teaching, research, extension and management) by applying a series of sustainable practices, as well as externally in collaboration with local and regional governments and national development actions and policies related to sustainable development.
In addition to the above, according to a study by the
Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) in 2008, it consulted a number of experts and professionals associated with higher learning on the reasons why Universities must contribute to the development human and social development, highlighting two main aspects:
• Higher education should be a good addition to professional people and citizens able to participate actively in the various spheres of society (social, economic, cultural, political, etc.).
• The Higher education has an obligation as one of its core objectives, contribute to human and social development, through relevant and engaged interaction with the environment.
Thus, transforming the university model takes as one of the main challenges to develop the universalization of higher education, recognizing training university as a public good which they are entitled access to everyone as part of human development, in view of what Max-Neef (1994) proposed as
human scale development, stating that it must consider the person- subject, seeking greater empowerment and local development of individuals, so the university model transformative approaches away from higher education to focus exclusively on economic growth of individuals.