The Social Impact of CSR Campaigns Among a Higher Education Institution From Romania

Abstract

Social responsibility campaigns implemented within higher education institutions from Romania are at an early stage, but with a growing interest in this field. These programs are built with the desire to convince and help the academic community to invest in the development of students, professors and auxiliary staff and to make a contribution to the development of local communities. Even if social impact assessment of this kind of projects is a complex process, by involving several beneficiaries and by producing visible results, a University may create serious premises in continuing and developing such programs in the academic sphere. An important aspect on launching social projects is tied to a clear identification of the real needs of the beneficiaries, the social sustainability of the actions after the program is finished and establishing an effective budget. Such projects may be developed not only in business area, but in educational institutions as well. The so called university social responsibility is based on the identification of social issues that may represent good opportunities to get involved in the community. To better understand this process, the authors of this paper describe the research done after implementing university social responsibility campaigns in Babes-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, Romania.