University Social Responsibility (USR): From the Perspective of Top 10 Universities in Japan

Abstract

The emerging global consensus is that businesses are the engine of economic growth and international development and that they should play an indispensable role alongside government and communities to solve complex, global challenges like poverty, inequality, unemployment, and climate change. In terms of education or tertiary education to be precise, sustainability is gradually integrated into the curriculum in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) evolves into university social responsibility (USR). This research employs the content analysis as the main research methodology to retrieve and analyze the curriculum of top 10 Japanese universities. The coding instrument was developed considering five dimensions of CSR including environmental, economic, social, stakeholder, and voluntariness. The aims are to (1) examine the USR’s current situation of top universities in Japan and (2) assess the strengths and weaknesses of USR in these above universities. The analysis undertaken shows that to date, Japanese universities, to some extents, have engaged properly in social responsibility and sustainable development. Moreover, these activities, projects, research, and implementations have also been announced and reported in their website contents.