The first two missions of universities are well known — educational and research. Today, universities are fully implementing the third mission, demonstrating not only active involvement in the city and regional agenda but also initiating and supporting the implementation of socially significant projects. We talked with Nadezhda Dmitrievna Vavilina, Doctor of Sociology, a member of the NETI Space project team, about the practice of implementing the third mission by Novosibirsk State Technical University NETI and about the role of humanities faculties in engineering universities.
— How does NSTU NETI embody the third mission of the university?
— I came to NETI in 1977 — even then it was the university that was the bearer of a special culture, and even then it was possible to talk about the implementation of the third mission. NATI was the bearer of ideology, the place where the destinies of entire generations were formed. As for today ' s implementation of the third mission, recently we have become accustomed to living in the project field, in the idea of projectness. Universities are implementing an infinite number of projects focused on the third mission. I am taking part in the project School of Leaders of youth volunteer teams for developing urban spaces "My territory". The project is being implemented with grant support from the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh). It is focused on specific tasks in specific territories. We held a foresight session aimed at the progressive design of the future city of Berdsk. The My Territory project itself is directly related to the implementation of the third mission: everyone involved in the Leadership School will contribute to regional development.
— How can the university influence the solution to urban issues?
— First, these projects. Second, he can act as a carrier of ideology. People who will be carriers of ideas will come out of the walls of the university. Graduates of our project will know what foresight is, understand how to conduct it, and broadcast this knowledge in their communities. Exchange, interaction, the influence of one community on another, and the carrier of new ideas — this is the third mission of the university.
Universities can see everything around them critically, which means that they can influence the decision-making of certain authorities or other social institutions.
— What is the role of humanities faculties in engineering universities?
— If humanitarians are not needed, who will say that engineers are needed? The idea of technological ways (and we are now moving into the sixth technological way*) was not born by engineers, but by sociologists, philosophers, and economists. If they are not at the technical university, who will tell the world, the community, the country, the authorities, and the state that engineers are needed? Who can say about the limits of artificial intelligence, and the limits of human capabilities? This is the role of the humanities in engineering universities.
* The sixth technological order will be characterized by the development of robotics; biotechnologies based on the achievements of molecular biology and genetic engineering, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence systems, global information networks, and integrated high-speed transport systems.