Dear Colleagues:

The main objective of the sixth edition of this newsletter is to share with you the progress this Project has had in its final phase for the Latin American universities.

It is important to remind you this newsletter has five sections, which will allow you to see firsthand what the project is about, how it has been developed, and other important highlights. Likewise, you can find additional information of interest related to this in the website: impalaproject.eu

We hope you get in contact with us and follow closely this joint growth from the development of the IMPALA project.

Marcela del Campo M.
Coordinator of the IMPALA project, Catholic University of Colombia

IMPALA project‘s Impact Assessment Framework (IAF), value chain, Institutional Impact Assessment Report and methodological tools were presented to the Board of Directors of the Agrarian University of Havana “Fructuoso Rodríguez Pérez” (UNAH).

Two things were highlighted during the presentation: the IAF and value chain’s usefulness to measure the relevance of the University’s actions with its environment; and the importance of replicating these learnings in the university’s community. Good practices and lessons learned were exhibited as well.

The university has selected two projects to validate in the institution IMPALA’s IAF: Inclusion of students with disabilities at the UNAH; and Doctoral Training College at the Scientific Teaching Complex of the Mayabeque Province. The first one belonging to the Assistance Services typology and the second one to the Continuing Education typology.

Finally, replication workshops have been organized in all the faculties, areas and local university centres of the province as dissemination activities.

On Friday 8 April , within the framework of the closure of the Sustainability and BIC Companies, the presentation of the main learnings and reflections from the project IMPALA were presented at the University of La Sabana.

The session was led by Juan Carlos Camelo, General Director of Social Projection and Co-creation, who has actively participated in the project IMPALA. The University’s Rector, Dr. Rolando Roncancio Rachid, and several deans, directors of administrative units, professors and managers of third mission’s activities attended too.

During the event, Juan Carlos Camelo and Carolina Velásquez, coordinator of the project IMPALA at the university, shared the main progress that has been made during these last three years. Besides, reflections on the importance of university’s third mission’s projects’ impact assessment were exchanged.

The importance of differentiating between product – effect – and impact- was presented as one of the main learnings when it comes to creating evaluation and monitoring indicators and tools. Another highlight was that the use of impact assessment methodologies promotes working by projects in interdisciplinary teams. In the transformation process towards a third generation University (U3G), it is important to bear in mind that the impact assessment framework must start in the third mission, while it is organically integrated in the other two University’s missions: teaching and research. This is particularly relevant taking into account the new national accreditation model.

Finally, the attendees declared that this type of international cooperation projects are of great importance for the strengthening of institutional capacities. They also highlighted the great opportunities to learn and exchange good practices within the consortium that have been created.

In previous days, at the Catholic University of Colombia, the Extension Committee was held, which is composed of the coordinators of the different programs and departments of the university and all the staff of the institution linked to the Extension.

In this space, the main results of the two community action projects were presented which were worked on the ERASMUS – IMPALA impact assessment, in the territorial program YOMASA :

Project 1: Fortalecimiento ciudadano al servicio de transformaciones personales, familiares y comunitarias, hacia la convivencia de los microterritorios participantes de la Unidad de Planeamiento Zonal 57 Gran Yomasa (entre los años 2016 y 2020). Citizen strengthening at the service of personal, family and community transformations towards the coexistence of the participating micro-territories of the Unit of Zonal Planning 57 Gran Yomasa between 2016 and 2020.

Project 2: Construcción de cultura y conciencia medioambiental (con niños y jóvenes en algunos sectores de la Unidad de Planeamiento Zonal 57 Gran Yomasa entre los años 2016 y 2020.) Construction of culture and environmental awareness with children and young people in some sectors of the Zonal Planning Unit 57 Gran Yomasa between 2016 and 2020.

With this socialization, it’s evident the learning in terms of measuring the impact of the community actions that the university carries out in the institutional programs of social responsibility, which is of great benefit for the measurement of future projects.

At present, the IMPALA project is working on the edition of the two books that are the product of the work of these three years. Firstly, the book Buenas Prácticas de Tercera Misión (Third Mission Good Practices), and, secondly, the book Evaluación de Impacto de Proyectos Institucionales de Tercera Misión (Third Mission Institutional Projects Impact Assessment). The publishing house of the Corporation for Biological Research (CIB for its acronym in Spanish) with the accompanying of the University of Antioquia is carrying out the editorial process, with the support of EFMD and advisors Fiona Hunter and Rafael Monterde.

The two books present concrete examples of the development of IMPALA in each of the Latin American higher education institutions of the consortium. The book Evaluación de Impacto de Proyectos Institucionales de Tercera Misión presents the application of the Impact Assessment Framework methodology in the Third mission projects developed in Colombian, Cuban and Panamanian universities. It is intended for Third mission project managers, academic and administrative managers as well as university staff interested in how to measure the contribution of their institution in their local environment. The Buenas Prácticas de Tercera Misión book is aimed at top management, that is, university directors (extension management, deans or rectory), interested in applying a process of analysis and strategic evaluation of the 3rd mission, and how to organize university resources to respond efficiently and pertinently to the demands of their local socio-economic environment.

We hope that these documents will be a support for all higher education institutions in the Latin American and Caribbean region to guide their institutional planning processes towards achieving impacts on education for the benefit of the communities.

These books will be officially presented at a project closing event in Havana in November. They will also be available on the project IMPALA website in digital format.

We wish that this will be the starting point for new projects that effectively apply this hard collective work of our institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean and the organizations and universities in Europe that have supported it.

In 2019, at the start of IMPALA, the project consortium designed the Impact Assessment Framework. This methodological guide is made up of reflections on the theory of change, the importance of the Third mission in Latin America and its six categories ("typologies" thus presented in the document such as continuing education, community actions or the management of innovation, among others), and finally the inclusion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Higher Education. Above all, it includes indicators that allow measuring the impact of the university's Third mission activities in one of its four dimensions: economic, social, environmental and epistemological.

During the last three years, Latin American universities used the IAF to measure the impact of two selected Third mission projects, currently under development. Despite the restrictions caused by sanitary conditions and the difficulty of accessing information, it was possible to present concrete results to the directors of the consortium members on how their projects contribute to local socio-economic development. You will find further information on this point in the book of good practices presented a little before this bulletin.

The lessons learned from this exercise allowed the validation of the IAF methodology. In recent weeks, those responsible for the University of Antioquia (Colombia), the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (Spain) and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Italy) reviewed the indicators presented at the IAF to assess their relevance, complement them in if necessary, and specify them for use by other Latin American institutions interested in the subject. This methodological guide (Impact Assessment Framework) was published in a freely accessed publication on the IMPALA project website, in the Resources section.

During the final conference of the IMPALA project to be developed in Havana (Cuba) on November 7-8, 2022, the publication of this central document of the project will be officially announced.