U3M-Albania Project Conference Book PDF

Developing Third Mission Activities

in Universities
Edited by
Javier Vidal – María José Vieira – Camino Ferreira

Developing Third Mission Activities in

Universities
International Conference
18 – 19 September 2014, Durres, Albania

Edited by
Javier Vidal – María José Vieira – Camino Ferreira

U3M-AL PROJECT - DEVELOPING THIRD MISSION ACTIVITIES IN ALBANIAN UNIVERSITIES
Project No: 530243-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-SMHES
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects only the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use,
which may be made of the information contained therein.
The consortium formed for this Project consists of the following institutions:
University of León, Spain
Technical University of Valencia, Spain
University of Turku, Finland
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Ministry of Education and Sport, Albania
University of Shkodra, Albania
University of Gjirokastra, Albania
University of Durres, Albania

Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania
Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania
University of Korça, Albania
University of Vlora, Albania
University Solutions, Spain
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Italy

Edited by:
Javier Vidal
María José Vieira
Camino Ferreira
ISBN: 978-9928-4213-1-9
2014, emar editions.
U3M-AL PROJECT - DEVELOPING THIRD MISSION ACTIVITIES IN ALBANIAN UNIVERSITIES

Project No: 530243-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-SMHES
This publication reflects only the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use,
which may be made of the information contained therein.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................ 1
Abstracts ....................................................................................................................6
1 Institutional perspective and Social Engagement 7
Good practices of 3M activities in Latin American universities ............................ 7
3M Activity of Students of Faculty of Electrical Engineering ................................ 9
Engaging Albanians: a Pyramidal Guide Model to Community Integration of

Orphan Persons with Disabilities ....................................................................... 11
The role of universities in fostering regional development: not only technology

transfer and innovation matter ........................................................................... 12
Regional Development Centre in University of Gjirokastra ................................ 14
Regional Development Centre in University of Shkodra .................................... 17
Carrier and Alumni Centre: an efficient instrument that helps the development of
3M activities in Agricultural University of Tirana ................................................ 19
2 Technology Transfer & Innovation 22
The monitoring techniques of the otter and the impact on the conservation and
management of the water ecosystems, along the Drinos Valley, Southern
Albania .............................................................................................................. 22
Moss biomonitoring technique of air in urban and rural zone of Gjirokastra region
.......................................................................................................................... 24
The role of universities as collaboration platforms in emerging economies ....... 25
The use of technology for a more qualitative education in medical sciences .... 27
3 Continuing Education 28
The role of human capital in the national economic development ..................... 28
Full papers ............................................................................................................... 29
The Third Mission of Universities: focus, main indicators and descriptors in a

selected group of Higher Education Institutions in Puerto Rico ......................... 30
3D body scanning technique for anthropometric measurements and custom

clothing designing .............................................................................................. 50
Education for Innovative and Inclusive Economic Development ....................... 62
The Evolution of University Technology Transfer towards Involvement with

Industry: the Case of the Politecnico di Torino .................................................. 72
Application of museum space within the university ........................................... 95
Charter school performance and continuing education challenges ................. 106
Starting Lifelong Learning Activities: A New Experience on Developing the Third

Mission in Vlora University to support Community Needs ............................... 128
Introduction
Developing Third Mission Activities in Universities
INTRODUCTION
We are pleased to present this book of proceedings which deepens in the role
of the universities in their environment and in the many activities that these
institutions develop in order to share their knowledge and services. From this
perspective, most university activities that are not purely related with teaching
and research are included under the concept of Third Mission. This construct
focuses on three dimensions, which are not the traditional missions of
universities: technology transfer and innovation, continuing education and social
engagement. One of the main characteristics of the Third Mission is the close
relation existing between universities and society at large, including the
collaboration with stakeholders like employers, graduates, community or
business.
The global tendencies remark the need to adjust university activities to the
needs of the local environment and the use of the university services by
business and government. These recommendations are of great importance in
countries where the universities have just started to respond to the social and
economic needs at the regional level in cooperation with different stakeholders.
This is the case of Albania, where the Third Mission Activities in universities are
in an early stage and need to be promoted at institutional level, counting with
the support of the government.
In order to promote Third Mission activities in universities of Albania, the

TEMPUS project Developing Third Mission activities in Albanian Universities
(U3M-AL) has been developed with the support of the European Commission
(Project No: 530243-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-SMHES). Three main
specific objectives have been established for the achievement of this goal:
1. Developing relationships between Albanian universities and society

through the promotion of Third Mission activities: technology transfer,
continuing education and social engagement.
2. Establishing Regional Development Centres for promoting and

organising Third Mission activities in each Albanian public university.
2
3. Establishing an Albanian network of Third Mission activities for promoting

these activities after the conclusion of this project.
The project U3M-AL focuses on promoting 3M activities in Albanian universities,

training university staff, establishing Regional Development Centres in charge
of 3M activities in each public university and finally, creating an Albanian
network for promoting 3M activities at national level. This project has been
addressed in order to promote cultural and structural reforms in universities.
Due to the fact that the socioeconomic environment is critical for the success of
the project, the relationships with regional industry, employers, public authorities
and the society at large has been promoted along it.
Fourteen partners have been involved in the project. Eight of them are from
Albania: Polytechnic and Agricultural Universities of Tirana, Universities of
Durres, Korça, Vlora, Shkodra, Gjirokastra, and the Ministry of Education and
Sport; other partners are from the European Union: University of Turku
(Finland), Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Istitiuto Superiore Mario Boella
(Italy), Technical University of Valencia (Spain), University Solutions (Spain)
and finally, the University of León (Spain) as coordinating institution.
The present book of proceedings is the result of an open call of proposals

presented at the International Conference of the U3M-AL project: Developing
Third Mission Activities in Universities held at University of Durres (Albania) on
18 and 19 of September, 2014. The International Conference is one of the
specific goals of the U3M-AL project and it has been developed to show the
achievements of the project to the Albanian and international community and to
have a deeper and final reflection on the relevance of Third Mission activities for
the socioeconomic future of Albania at the end of project. This objective is
crucial for the U3M-AL project, since the dissemination of good practices and
results of the project is a potent tool for marketing the Third Mission activities in
Albanian universities, including other universities, and the best way of assuring
and supporting the sustainability of the project increasing, in this sense, the
support to 3M activities through the recognition of their social and economic
advantages.
3
This dissemination activity was oriented towards participating universities but

also the presentation of the project to non-partner universities and stakeholders
as a priority. For this reason, this event was open to the wider academic
community, leaders of universities, institutional, regional and national
authorities, authorities of neighbouring countries, European Commission
representatives, employers, trade unions, employers and students associations,
NGOs, etc., from Albania but also from the region of Western Balkans as well
as from other European countries.
The general objectives of this Conference are:
1. To present the achievements of the project to the Albanian and

international community.
2. To have a deeper and final reflection on the relevance of 3M activities for

the socioeconomic future of Albania and the whole region.
3. To propose concrete models for the implementation of 3M activities.
4. To identify and discuss the main obstacles of the implementation of 3M

activities in universities.
5. To present the dissemination actions of the project.
6. To illustrate the bridges between Albanian universities and society

through the promotion of 3M.
7. To present the process that several Albanian Universities have followed

to establish Regional Development Centres for promoting and organizing
3M activities and to provide suggestions about the best way of doing it.
8. To present the Albanian network of 3M activities for promoting these

activities.
The programme conference has had the contribution of professor Dr. Francisco
Marmolejo, World Bank's Lead Tertiary Education Specialist and Coordinator of
its Network of Higher Education Specialist, with his presentation on global
issues and trends in Tertiary Education and the growing importance of the Third
Mission. Also, at the Conference, the presentation of the Albanian Network of
Third Mission activities was presented and signed by the seven rectors of the
participating Albanian universities, which will guarantee the permanent
4
dissemination of the project. Finally, Albanian partners have played a central

role presenting activities and achievements, focusing on the Regional
Development Centres created in each university.
The main theme of the Conference is focused on the Third Mission and the
university mission. The abstracts and papers presented in the proceedings are
grouped by the three thematic sessions of the conference programme:
 Track 1: Institutional perspective and Social Engagement
 Track 2: Technology Transfer & Innovation
 Track 3: Continuing Education
All contributions included in this book are related to the objective and theme of
the Conference. In this sense, the major issues addressed on the papers
presented at the Conference contributed to the main theme and ran throughout
the conference programme. These are: (a) improving the management of
universities in regard to 3M activities and providing better students services in
the area of continuing education, (b) improving the capacity of universities for
obtaining additional financial resources and developing transparency about
services and activities, (c) developing technology transfer activities, continuing
education in society at large, social engagement of universities and establishing
regional centres with these purposes, (d) university management and students
services, (d) supporting structures and mechanisms for developing 3M
activities, and (e) case studies comparing at least two countries (including but
not limited to those of South East Europe) as well as research-based policy
recommendations.
We would like to sincerely thank all those who attended to the conference and
contributed to this book.
5
Abstracts
1 INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Good practices of 3M activities in Latin American universities
José Ginés Mora. Institute of Education, University of London (United Kingdom)
María José Vieira. University of León (Spain)
The ALFA III Project (2012-2014), Linking Universities with your Environment
for Sustainable Social and Economic Development (VINCULAENTORNO), aims
to strengthen relations of Latin American universities with the socioeconomic
environment by promoting: the exchange of experiences between LA and
Europe on the role of 3rd mission activities, the development of specific
structures to implement third mission activities at LA universities, and the
creation of an AL network for sharing 3rd mission activities. Project partners
from European and Latin American countries are: the coordinating institution -
Universidad del País Vasco (Spain)-, Universitá degli Studi di Napoli (Italy),
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile), Universidad Veracruzana
(Mexico), Universidade Estatual de Campinas (Brazil), Universidad Católica
Sedes Sapientiae (Peru), Universidad Nacional de Chilecito (Argentina),
Universidad Católica de Asunción (Paraguay), Universidad del Norte
(Colombia) plus 21 associated universities from the same countries.
This paper describes the objectives of the VINCULAENTORNO Project and its
main activities which are:
 Mapping relationship with the environment in the 28 participating

universities.
 Learning visits to some EU universities.
 A selection of good practices related to national policies, institutional

governance of third mission activities, Technology Transfer and
Innovation, Continuing Education and Social Engagement.
 Conferences and seminars to facilitate exchanges between universities.
 Creating a 3M network in Latin America.
7
Additionally, this paper focuses on examples of good practices in each of the

analysed dimensions: national policies, Technology Transfer and Innovation,
Continuing Education and Social Engagement, and on the factors that have
contributed to their success, mainly the cooperation and good communication of
authorities, the private sector and universities, institutional commitment,
incentives to universities, trained staff for the development of 3rd mission
activities, real demand and supply, good management and adequate resources.
Finally, the following conclusions of this project will be highlighted and

discussed:
 Latin American universities are developing a growing activity of service to

society. The number and quality of these activities is truly amazing.
 The priority given to social commitment. Social service of graduates is

mandatory in Mexican universities and its social engagement is
promoted nationwide in Argentina. The variety of topics, the originality of
the solutions, and the stability of the proposals are excellent examples of
good practice.
 Continuing education has a more irregular development. There are some

universities where this dimension is a priority while in others it has a
more marginal role.
 Technology transfer is developing in most analyzed universities.

Universities are developing TT activities at greater or lesser extent
depending on the economic environment, building relationships with
companies that will be very productive for them and for society in
general.
 Participating universities are becoming aware of the importance of

devoting attention to 3M activities at institutional level.
8
3M Activity of Students of Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Aida Spahiu. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Nike Shanku. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Sonila Allkoci. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Krenar Caushi. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Equipping the students with tools and methods, which allow for self-training and
professional advancement while performing their job, is considered as a part of
engineering education at Polytechnic University of Tirana for finding themselves
and become useful to the society. Faculty of Electrical Engineering at
Polytechnic University of Tirana has included in the study programs of first and
second cycle the compulsory competence regarding the Sustainability and
Social Commitment, in frame of environmental and social changes in Albania.
Electrical Drives is one of the courses in curriculum of Electrical Engineer,
Industrial Automation direction that has a lot of elements of Engineering
Education for Sustainable Development.
The paper aims to show that the lecturer-student-stakeholders cooperation and

interaction is the major key in developing the new engineering education
system. It will share the results of study made in Dobrac Pumping Station, from
the students of Master of Science of Industrial Automation about energy
savings, environmental protection and accruing real economic benefits of Water
Supply and Sewerage Company of the city of Shkoder by improvements of
electric drives efficiency. The study was undertaken from three students, in
frame of their Electric Drives course project about implementation of high
efficiency electric drives. Firstly, students did the assessment of energy
consumption in Dobrac pumping station, Shkoder city, by measurements of
voltage unbalance, current unbalance, power factor and power consumption of
installed electric drives. The measurements are made with Power Sight PS250
instrument and the calculations by its software. As the second step the students
analyzed the situation of energy consumption in pumping station and proposed
immediate improvements. There are two kinds of immediate improvements: 1)
9
replacing of oversized standard motors with better sized energy efficient ones,
2) compensation of power factor. The study shows that the implementation of
proposed improvements from Water Supply and Sewerage Company of the city
of Shkoder will bring the reduction of energy consumption from 20% - 37%,
improvement of financial situation and performance for water enterprise as the
worst debtor of energy in Shkoder and reduction of CO2 emission. The
proposed investment has a short payback time up 3 years.
10
Engaging Albanians: a Pyramidal Guide Model to Community

Integration of Orphan Persons with Disabilities
Suela Ndoja. Italian-Albanian Association Progetto Speranza (Italy)
Albanian Government is committed to listening and working with its citizens by

encouraging them to have what they have to say. It is seen by the fact of
elaborating the National Strategy on Persons with Disabilities which recognizes
their rights to enter in all the field of the life. Despite of this, the documents need
to be interpreted and to be implemented. This can be done only by being
conscious about what is expected from every one of us to make the reality vital
for persons with disabilities.
Every Albanian citizen should make the first step in strengthening supports and
services based on individual needs of persons with disabilities to enhance their
wellbeing, contribution and capacity of these local people to actively participate
in decisions that affect their lives. Moreover should contribute in improving long-
term strategies to respond to and manage demand for specialist Disability
services in their local communities.
This paper is developed to raise one’s communitarian conscience to strengthen

the awareness of engagement of orphan persons with disability. It provides both
good practice and contextual information. While the guide’s title refers to
engaging orphan persons with a disability, successful engagement programs
are likely to also involve the younger, youth, students, families and careers,
disability organizations in a paid or voluntary capacity, academic and other in
order to have an active interest toward disability issue based on a Pyramidal
Guide Model to Community Integration of Orphan Persons with Disabilities.
11
The role of universities in fostering regional development: not

only technology transfer and innovation matter
Stefano Boffo. Università di Napoli Federico II (Italy)
Enrico Pugliese. Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy)
Over the last decades universities have been receiving – in a more and more
evident way- new requests coming from the economy (use of knowledge
products) and the society (changes in the occupational structure, new
professions accessed through educational qualifications, social mobility). At
the same time, the student population has been undergoing deep changes with
the admission of new users introducing new aims and expectations.
A dimension which belongs to the globalization process – although possessing

its own autonomous value – are the changing character and the closer
relationships between universities and the outside world. The ever more
systematic use of knowledge is progressively organized in the various forms of
technological production and their transfer from the universities to productive
sectors is becoming a central responsibility of the universities. Universities have
responded more and more to requests from the economic and cultural worlds
to create targeted forms of training (for professionals needing scientific-
technical updating and also for adults desiring more advanced cultural
experience).
In the last decades social sciences scholars have also stressed the role
universities can play for the development regional economies in strict dialogue
and interaction with economic and institutional actors (Freeman 1987; Saxenian
1994; Etzkowitz et al. 2000; Cooke 2002). It is the terrain which is known as
University Third Mission (U3M) or Third Stream or, in the Anglo–Saxon tradition,
University Outreach or Extension Service. The main trend presently
emphasizes U3M as essentially economic (technology transfer, innovation and
consultancy) and, though at second rank of U3M activities, education
(continuing education and lifelong learning).
12
Much less considered are the whole series of activities trying to answer social
and cultural requests coming to universities from outside: in a word, the social
(or civil) engagement of universities in the life of their own regions and cities.
This is not to say that such activity are completely absent. But the relations are
not yet well institutionalized.
These functions of U3M are especially important when universities are faced
with the need to actively contribute to general development of a specific region.
“Development” consists in a complex set of factors, of which economic growth is
just one, even if essential. “Prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen
democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and
contribute to the public good” (CIC Committee on Engagement, 2005, Michigan
State University) is not only fully part of U3M, but a crucial element if the
mission university is intended to contribute to the whole enhancement of local
societies.
A field in which social and technological science could work together is the
area of welfare and social policies. The demand for innovation and new
solutions to the emerging welfare problems related to population ageing is more
and more explicit. Social, economic, and technological innovation are urgent in
these situations of crisis. An example of fruitful research in this field is
represented, by the study carried out on elders by Istituto Boella in Turin.
13
Regional Development Centre in University of Gjirokastra
Liljana Reçka. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Eqrem Çabej” University of Gjirokastra is one of the most important Higher

Education Institution situated in the South of Albania. The mission of the
university aims at the need for change, transformation and creation of real
capacities, which are valuable for the society. Teaching and research continue
to remain the basic missions of our University, the third one cooperation with
different sectors of society in order to improve the regional development already
is an important part of our university strategy.
ECUG thanks to the project U3M – AL, based on the experience of some
European universities partners and after several round tables, meetings, and
interviews with local policy makers, stakeholders, students etc. created
Regional Development Centre.
RDC of Gjirokastra university is based on three pillars:
 Centre of Students' Information and Consulting & ALUMNI
 Centre of Continuing Education & Life Long Learning
 Centre of Regional Research
There is identified a target group for the services offered from RDC
 ALUMNI is a centre for all the students who would like to have an
internship (professional practice) and a job in the future
 We identified as possible clients for TTI, the local institutions such as:
Municipality, RED, DGT, ILS, HOSPITAL, etc.
 We identified as a target group for Continuing Education and LLL pupils,

students, teachers, employees or retired people who want a certificate in
a specific field for ex. a certificate of PC knowledge, or professional
credits for teachers etc.
 About social engagement, we identified students who will be part of

sportive clubs, to deal with different activities such as football, volleyball,
14
basketball etc. Also under monitoring of professors of music education

and figurative arts it is created a group in order to develop and intensify
the organizing of cultural activities with students and young people such
as concerts, theatre performances, different exhibitions of figurative arts
etc.
Creating this centre we had into consideration:
 To make the important part of the new ECUG strategy its third mission.
 RDC as a centre of coordination between community and business

needs and appropriate departments or faculties provides all
competencies on training and learning.
 It creates a good environment and technology support for the

development of new ideas and innovation applicable in economy of
Gjirokastra region.
 Collecting the necessary support material we created a joint web-based

database in order to cooperate with stakeholder groups.
The reflexion on Training workshops in Albania, Training visits in European

project partners and analysis of the regional demands of 3M activities helped us
to design a plan of 3M activities which is focused on education activities,
research activities and social activities.
We prepared carefully operations and financial planning as well as the schedule

for implementation of 3M activities in Gjirokastra Region.
ECUG and RDC rely on a vision of exchange and mutual benefits. Community
benefits from the presence of the university as well as from the wider range of
services. University also benefits from links with the community by taking other
funds from regional and EU authorities. Community needs the university not
only in terms of education, but also as a structure of individual or company level
training, research and consultancy services to various SME, rental facilities
such as conference rooms, etc.
We are aware that regional development will be successful when all the actors,
community parties interact together, listen to each other expectations and divide
the implementation responsibilities appropriately.
15
The university promotes and will continue to promote its third mission in every
organizational unit in order to encourage and orientate scientific and innovative
work of academic staff, social activities on real needs of regional development
16
Regional Development Centre in University of Shkodra
Erard Çurçija. University of Shkodra Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi” is located in the northern part of Albania.

This University has six Faculties and offers 24 Bachelor programs of study, 43
Master programs of study and PhD studies.
The University of Shkodra is implementing the Bologna Process and it is part of

many national and international project of Higher Education. The Tempus
project entitled U3m-Al - Developing Third Mission Activities in Albanian
Universities, project No: 530243-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-SMHES was
successfully implemented at Shkodra University. The goal of this project is to
increase the University third mission activities in order to stimulate as much as
possible the collaboration of the University with the community, not only by
offering programs of study (Bachelor, Master or PhD studies) in different fields
but also by offering different services to the students and the community of the
region.
The university business environment is influenced by the following factors:
 The geographical location. Shkodra University is in the northern part of

Albania, it borders with Montenegro and Kosovo. This city is 30 km from
the coast; it has a natural lake and the castle. All these factors make this
place a potential place for tourism;
 Tourism is one of the most fruitful and important sector in the economy of
the region;
 Another factor is that Shkodra region bases its economic development in

agriculture;
 Many companies provide dairy products;
 There are also many factories (shoes and underwear’s), travel agencies
which have been running their activities for a long time in this region.
17
 Another aspect we can mention is the considerable number of NGO-s

that operate in different fields in Shkodra region and a lot of people are
involved in these NGO-s even part of the University.
In the framework of this project our University has established the Regional
Development Office which be attached to the International Relation Office. The
objectives of this office are to provide:
 A wider range of professional training courses especially in the

information technology;
 Implementation of the Alumni Database.
 Stronger relations with labor office, with representatives of the

municipality and many other businesses (private and state sector);
 Different training courses in Continuing Education
In order to come closer to the students and the community, our University has
created the new web (U3m.unishk.edu.al) in the framework of this project and
will be used for the activities organized in this framework. There will also be
published the University studies which might be useful to the interested target
groups. The website is a browser independent. It is realized by using HTML5
and has an account management system, where users can be registered as
students, recruiters, or academic staff.
Registered users can insert their own Curriculum Vitae based on an automatic
form, and consult different job offers and university career events.
Recruiters can insert job offers and consult students CVs. Academic staff is
allowed to insert “Alumni” events, consult students CV-s etc.
18
Carrier and Alumni Centre: an efficient instrument that helps

the development of 3M activities in Agricultural University of
Tirana
Bizena Bijo. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Leonidha Peri. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Ina Pagria. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Ferdi Brahushi. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Rezart Postoli. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Ariola Lika. Agricultural University of Tirana (Albania)
Agricultural University of Tirana has constantly adapted its strategy of

development based on the environment dynamics as well as using all internal
capacities enhancing in this way the quality and quantity of its services and
products.
Creation of the RDC is not only a project result but it is meantime outcome of
wider efforts of all university structures and answering stakeholders’ needs. The
creation of RDC is preceded from a phase of current resources identification as
well as the current conditions and expectations of university inside areas. We
believe that the latter is the most important one. The success of this phase is
determined also by the experience in training visits to homologous universities,
part of this project.
The mission of the RDC is to create an interactive network between AUT and
other stakeholders, not only facing and changing their interests but also
improving mutual benefits through collaboration. RDC will promote and maintain
continuous and long-term partnership to provide exchanges between AUT, the
academic community and employers, institution and organizations within and
across the borders
The main pillars of RDC activity are described below:
19
 creation of a sustainable and proactive cooperation with business and

institutions
 enabling the development and enhancing the quality of professional

practice,
 increasing employment opportunities for young professionals who

graduate in university,
 gathering information, recognizing innovative practices of business
 offering to the stakeholders the latest technologies in fields covered by

AUT.
RDC will develop its activity in two levels:
1. University level, RDC is a unit part of central structure of our institution

(rectorate) engaging 2 staff members.
2. Faculty level; each faculty (five all) has its office ZKS with a specialist
working there.
All staff members of RDC will work according the annual action plan of the
center in close collaboration with all university and non university human
resources involved in the process
RDC serves to Studens:
 It helps students identifying, planning and achieving career goals for job
search
 It provides valuable information for the labor market and employment

opportunities
 It provides to students knowledge through exchanging adequate

information with stakeholders involved
 It builds and maintains databases as well as continuous contacts in the

process of graduating students and alumni at least for three years.
RDC serves to stakeholders (mainly businesses but not only):
 RDC organizes activities constantly in close collaboration with other

university units such as business fairs, workshops, training activities.
20
 RDC create conditions to employers to have current information about

university activity and new professionals profile
 It facilitates the recruiting process
 It provides data, offer information as well as keeps continuous contacts

with businesses and institutions.
 It creates an interaction with mutual benefits between two sides
Operations and financial planning:
Communication between RDC, academia in one side and outside university

stakeholders will be a challenge for the future activities. We believe a good
starting point is assigning responsible staff, in an adequate office with the
necessary infrastructure and equipment.
Schedule and monitoring:
University through RDC info will monitor in permanent way results of work done
through different indicators of measurement such as:
 Number of active student profiles on database
 Number of business profiles on database
 Participation in annual activities (career fair, workshops, roundtables) of

academic staff, students, businesses, institutions.
 Number of agreements with stakeholders.
 Number of young professionals employed every year.
 Feedback from business representatives.
21
2 TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER & INNOVATION
The monitoring techniques of the otter and the impact on the

conservation and management of the water ecosystems, along
the Drinos Valley, Southern Albania
Etleva Hysaj. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Majlinda Terpo. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Euroasian otter (Lutra lutra) is closely related to the water ecosystems of all the
kinds. It serves as a bio-indicator of the situation of the ecosystems and it is the
first animal which disappears when the conditions of a water basin start to
become critical.
The methods and non-invasive techniques in monitoring the otter provide

information about the situation and the tendencies of the water ecosystems in
the Drino valley.
The study was carried out during the 2009-2012 period. The area of study
included the Drino River, the tributaries and reservoirs found in its vicinity. The
monitoring was done through the identification of the signs of the otter activity
(tracks, sprains, hills, scratches, holts). The otter’s marking intensity was used
to evaluate the rate of activity.
The differentiated rate of activity in three different sectors, presented the

problems of water ecosystems, which are closely related to the community
living close to the Drino valley.
The statistical analysis accoring to ANOVA (single factor) discovered many

significant variation of marking intensity among the three sectors of the Drino
river : for the parametre the number of sprainting points/200m (F = 59.7***, p <
0.001), whereas for the parametre the number of spraints/200m (F = 45.5***, p
< 0.001).
22
The lowest values of marking intensity resulted in the sector Kakavie-Virua. The
main reasons of this situation are: mismanagement of the water reserves of the
reservoirs, the dumping of toxic wastes in the area of Kordhocë and in the area
leather and shoes factory and the discarding of municipal solid waste at the
river bridge.
The median values of marking intensity resulted in the sector Virua-A.Poçi.

Illegal fishing, habitat destruction and mining of aggregate, were the main
factors which affected this activity.
Maximum values of marking intensity were observed in the sector Virua-A.Poçi,

due to the optimum environmental situation of this habitat.
Unfavorable factors which constitute the rate of activity of the otter, have a
direct impact on the health, economic and touristic activity of the community in
the area.
23
Moss biomonitoring technique of air in urban and rural zone of

Gjirokastra region
Majlinda Terpo. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Romeo Mano. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Etleva Hysaj. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
The amount and variety of waste material have increased with the growing of
technology and population. Increased vehicular traffic and indiscriminate
disposal of industrial and municipal waste can potentially contribute to elevated
levels of various heavy metals (Fe, Al, Pb, Zn, Cr, As, Cu, Ni, V and Cd) in the
air and soil environment. These metals are known to accumulate in soil and
have long persistence time through interaction with soil component and
consequently enter food chain through plants or animals. Again it is technology
that will help the environment. Moss biomonitoring technique helps us to evaluate
the levels of air pollution with heavy metals. Samples of the terrestrial moss
Hypnum cupressiforme were collected in September- October 2010 from 17
sites according to the guidelines of the LRTAP Convention – ICP Vegetation.
Collected moss samples were cleaned and totally digested by using microwave
digestion system. The content of elements was determined by atomic emission
spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES). Geographical
distribution maps of the elements over the sampled territory were constructed
using GIS technology. The overall results of this exploratory study suggest the
utility of H. cupressiforme as a lower plant for biomonitoring the environmental
impact of atmospheric pollution in urban and rural areas.
24
The role of universities as collaboration platforms in emerging

economies
Kaapo Seppälä. University of Turku (Finland)
Céline Charpentron. University of Turku (Finland)
Tuomas Mäkilä. University of Turku (Finland)
Over the last decades universities have been increasingly encouraged by

various public and private stakeholders to take a more active role within the
economy and society. They are constantly in need to access the so-called
“useful knowledge” through stable interaction with higher education institutions
(HEI). Considering HEIs as such increases the source of competitive
advantages in local economies. This advantage is not limited to the economic
sphere only, but affects also the social and civic life. Development tools, like a
Business Plan Approach (Seppälä & al. 2013), help the universities to analyze
their current situation and identify potential future development to build
customer surfaces supporting University-Business Collaboration (UBC).
Through UBC, HEIs become more aware of the outside needs and start to
consider developing the so called University Third Mission. This is the base for
the flourishing of the “Third Mission” (3M) of universities.
Universities having the capability to collaborate with local businesses do not

only provide the companies with fresh graduates but also support the
application of their research and boost innovation. The challenge is that local
companies usually underestimate the benefits of extended collaboration with
universities. Also the myriad of collaboration possibilities is relatively unknown
from the businesses and other local actors’ side. On the other hand, universities
are quite often omitting companies’ needs in the sake of academic
independence. Also, the lack of dissemination and communication of their
activity usually leads to vain efforts.
Through the collaboration platforms, universities are given a more central role
and get access to a wider collaboration pool. From including the universities to
local decisions, the platform partners have access to up-to-date know-how and
25
innovative approaches. Businesses also get to share their experience and

expend their network through the platforms.
In this paper we explore the role of universities as collaboration platforms. The

platforms can be fostering collaboration at least at two levels 1) between the
university and local business clusters and 2) between two or more universities.
Assuming that a university can work at both levels, it can lead into a situation
that also businesses in both ends are starting to collaborate among each other.
In this study we analyse several cases including collaboration at both levels.

The qualitative data consists of relevant UBC cases filling two conditions: 1)
there is more than one participating university and the 2) collaboration includes
also local businesses. The local business ecosystems and links between the
universities and businesses are then studied to provide a comprehensive
picture of the overlap of the local UBC ecosystems. The business area of our
interest is the ICT industry and life sciences.
26
The use of technology for a more qualitative education in

medical sciences
Isidor Kokalari. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Theodhor Karaja. University of Tirana (Albania)
Studying and becoming a highly skilled professional in medical sciences takes a

lot of time, and requires serious efforts, strong will and motivation. On the other
hand a relatively good level of knowledge, in bio-physics, chemistry and bio-
engineering, are needed to understand the complex functionality and regulation
of human physiological systems. The educators all over the world are nowadays
benefitting by the expansion of computer simulations using them as additional
means to traditional methods of teaching. These tools are successfully applied
towards a more qualitative education especially in medical sciences, in order to
overcome the difficulties in understanding physiological systems. It is described
in this paper the need for screen based simulations for qualitatively improving
the teaching of difficult subjects. Interactive educational software, are good
example of “learning by doing” as they simulate real phenomena offering the
possibility to test the behaviour of live systems without putting humans on risk.
Recently Albania is paying a greater attention to technology transfer and

innovations in tandem with their importance in education and development.
There are discussed some of the advantages of computer based simulations
especially in circumstances of lack of expensive laboratory setups or animal
experimentations. The results of a survey with postgraduate students are given
in order to show the effectiveness and prove the success of using simulations
during classes of medical physics. Finally it is stressed the fact that teaching the
physiology of human body is not limited to university students and targeting
medicine science students only. In the framework of long life learning, health
care professionals are continuously trained with the aid of model based
simulations to better manage critical situations of patients.
27
3 CONTINUING EDUCATION

The role of human capital in the national economic
development
Klodian Muço. University Eqrem Çabej, Gjirokastra (Albania)
Blerina Serjani. European University of Tirana (Albania)
Internationalization, technological innovation and scientific research, these

words are often primary evoked recently by economic researchers, as the only
option for coping with the economic crisis and global competitiveness which is
rapidly modify the traditions and values of our society. This change includes
enterprises, social and institutional assets, patterns of production and labour
market characteristics.
The secret to coping with the crisis today is to put officers in the centre of the
enterprise, to invest, grow their knowledge and their qualification through
continuing education and Life Long Learning programs. So today employees of
an enterprise shall not be considered as a factor of the economic process but
as an actor, as a protagonist.
The primary objective of this study is the identification and analysis of economic
policy instruments, analysis of labour rights and union rights in order to orient
university, local handicrafts and businesses to the regional development.
Synthetically this paper seeks to enable the passing of the traditional notion of
the labour law and union right to a new concept: "the right of human resources"
where the officer would be considered an essential component of enterprise
organization so a primary asset, which contributes to value creation and
realization of objectives. There is a wide consensus among researchers that
human capital is the primary component in economic development. So the
continuous qualification of human resources and investment in it should have a
primary role in the productivity and capacity of the business which will help the
competition in the international markets.
28
Full papers
The Third Mission of Universities: focus, main indicators and

descriptors in a selected group of Higher Education Institutions
in Puerto Rico
María de los A. Ortiz Reyes. University of Puerto Rico
Mercy Delgado Cordero. University of Puerto Rico
Joselyn López Villafañe. University of Puerto Rico
Natalie Negrón Torrens. University of Puerto Rico
Abstract
The purpose of our work is to review what is grasped today in Puerto Rico
under the term “third mission of universities” and to understand how this has
emerged, what are the expectations behind the use of the terminology and the
challenges it brings to the higher education system to improve their visibility and
reputation with external audiences. The research followed a qualitative
phenomenological approach focus in the theoretical assumptions that underpin
the growing importance given to direct connections between university research
activities and the external economic and social worlds.
Keywords: third mission, Puerto Rico higher education institutions,

entrepreneurial university
Introduction
The notion of “third stream” of activities or “third mission” developed from

research activities (Laredo, 2007). There is no discussion over the need for
universities to connect directly to the external world and in particular to the
economy. Why then did such notions as “patenting”, “technology transfer”,
“valorization”, “third stream”, or “third mission” all linked with the research
activities of universities turn central in most of the discussions that take place
today on universities? Why has the Burton Clark (2001) notion of
30
entrepreneurial university been connected to this third mission are not to the
ability of scholars to develop new original research projects on teaching
curricula? Within this context our research team focus to explore the concept of
the third university mission refer to as: the promotion of interventions that are
capable to promote and disseminate research results, so that they contribute to
the socio economic development of territories in local and national levels.
Five institutions of higher education in Puerto Rico agreed to participate.

Structured interviews and focus groups were carried out with key players from
those institutions and different ways of interactions were distinguished such as
common agenda-setting, collaborative research, communications and
dissemination of research outcomes, the use of knowledge for productive
purposes among others.
The second part of our research explored the different dimensions of

corresponding indicators. Furthermore the potential tensions and challenges
and the need for universities to redefine and transform themselves was
profoundly discussed.
Definitions
Technology transfer
The term has been used to describe and analyse an astonishingly wide range
of organizational and institutional interactions involving some form of
technology-related exchange. ‘Sources’ of technology have included private
firms, government laboratories, universities, nonprofit research organizations,
and even entire nations; ‘users’ have included schools, police and fire
departments, small businesses, legislatures, cities, states and nations… Within
single organisations such as large, research-intensive private firms, technology
transfer has been used to describe the processes by which ideas, proofs-of-
concept, and prototypes move from research-related to production-related
phases of products development (Roessner cited by Bozeman, 2000, p. 629).
31
Social responsibility
The university social responsibility is the search for viable solutions to the
demands of society through the work of interdisciplinary teams, actively
involving teachers, students, administrative, academic, and community; in the
training of future professionals as a driving force of change and management,
as full citizens, aware and able to attract the country's sustainable development
(Viteri Moya, Jácome Villacres & Medina León, 2013, p. 78).
Entrepreneurship
Is defined as the creation of new business enterprises by individuals or small

groups, with the entrepreneur assuming the role of society's major agent of
change, initiating the industrial progress that leads to wider cultural shifts Kent,
Sexton & Vesper, 1982.
Third mission
It refers to diverse activities not covered by the first mission (education) and
second mission (research) such as technology transfer, continuing education
and social engagement in the form of public access to lectures and cultural
assets, voluntary work, consultancy etc. (E3M Project, 2012, cited by Trencher,
Yarime, McCormick, Doll & Kraines, 2013). “Third mission" has led the
university to become a key player in the process of social and economic
development, through a closer link with their environment. In this new model of
university activities such as knowledge transfer and business incubation, stop
being casual and become permanent, and will permeate the university bodies.
This creates a virtuous circle, where companies are favored by increased
competitiveness and universities perceive the benefits of integration into society
through a new social contract, which, unlike the above, demand more directing
research activities to social needs. (González & González, 2013, p. 5).
32
Spin off’s
The transfer of one corporation’s stock to the stockholders of another

corporation. Such a transfer may result from an antitrust decree requiring a
large corporation to break up by spinning off one or more subsidiaries. A
spinoff may create additional market value for stock if the company spun off is
in an industry currently favored by investors (Ammer & Ammer, 1984, p. 435).
Literature Review
For the longest time universities across the world have kept true to their main
two missions of education and promotion of research. These approaches have
served societies very well for many centuries, by fostering professionals,
impacting culture and building the leaders of the future. However, Laredo
(2007) examined the need for universities to do more, to connect to the world,
and in particular to the economy. His research supported the emerging role of
the university. Our institutions as we know them in the twenty-first century are
transitioning, and transforming in the light of the economic and societal
changes. All of this has moved Higher Education Institutions to rethink their
missions and assume the call for social responsibility and to transform and
generate significant societal and economic changes. In other words, the
university has emerged in the 21st century as a generator of social and
economic development, this is known as third mission.
In Puerto Rico the higher education system has a diverse group of institutions
with a great variety of degree programs, some vocational, technical, academic
and research based. The system is regulated by the Puerto Rico Council of
Education, whose mission is to ensure the access of all citizens to quality
education while promoting values of solidarity and commitment, and the
development of the necessary skills to participate in the economic activity of
Puerto Rico to promote high quality of life.
According to Julio Sánchez Maríñez in his National Report on Puerto Rico

about scientific and technological development, seventy five higher education
institutions (HEI) offer higher academic degrees, seventeen are public, fourteen
of them offer bachelor's degrees or higher. Fifty eight are private; from these,
33
forty four grant bachelor's degrees or higher. Only one institution, University of
Puerto Rico (UPR), in the Rio Piedras campus is classified under the system
IEPDS as doctoral-intensive. Moreover, there are eight institutions classified as
IES Master one is public and seven are private. In this report it is also
mentioned that the number of students in graduate programs has increased,
programs including those in the areas of science, engineering and health. This
data reflects the general grasp or commitment to third mission activities of the
institutions holding these programs.
According to Venditti & Leydesdorf (2011), the concept of a Third Mission

developed from the emerging need for change and development, which
universities have been experiencing since the 1980s. Various authors put into
context the emerging changes of knowledge-based economy, agencies such as
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have argued for
a more engaged role of academia in the economy and society (Freeman, 1982;
Rothwell & Zegveld, 1981).
Furthermore, the researchers support the Third Mission because it’s “meant to
change the way universities are embedded into regions and communities”
(Venditti & Leydesdorf, 2011). This new focus embodies university engagement
with nonacademic; making our universities accessible to everybody. With this
notion the authors believe that by the use of ICT there is a creation of “bridges
in the cognitive dimension that can be constructed between social partners
even before one interacts socially”. This connection becomes a catalyst of
innovation; and when our universities innovate, the economy is impacted
exponentially; in fact this link should yield fruitful innovative ideas.
According to the researchers quoted in Venditti & Leydesdorf (2011), Third

Mission was initially used referencing terms of technology transfer offices,
intellectual property, “valorization” programs, university-industry-government
relations, etc. (Sanchez & Elena, 2006; Rothermel, 200), nonetheless Venditti &
Leydesdorf (2011) suggest that this “linear” approach is not beneficial; they
argue that “the linear model (of technology push) limits the possibilities for
developing university-industry and university-third party relations,” which means
that it would limit the depth of the Universities’ involvement in socio-economic
development.
34
Another third mission definition was provided by Bueno Campos (2007), he

defines it "as the social perspective of its extension and community
involvement, related to the social needs of their environment, both local and
regional." The changes referred to by the author reflect the need for the
relationships between the University, the Government, the Society and the
Corporations. This means that the alliances built are in the best interest of
social and economic development. This author not only provides a clear
definition but he also arises the importance of monitoring and measuring
results. This is extremely vital to all universities since they need to asses if their
third mission activities are impacting the socio-economic wellbeing of their
surroundings.
In The Mission of the University, Ortega y Gasset discuss the problem of
education, and how universities play a role of in social integration and their
importance in the development of culture and history (Olguin, 1955). With this
in mind, he suggests that higher education should be reformed, but it should be
an aligned reform. An interesting aspect is that according to the author,
"Reform is always creating new uses" (Ortega y Gasset, 1930, p. 26). This
means that the University is an organization in constant change, and without
changing what it has always been, it needs to adapt for the new generations to
come.
Ortiz Reyes (2011) in her paper reinterpreting with Ortega y Gasset: the mission
of the university in the knowledge society, discusses the mission of the
university in the twenty-first century. Sequentially she discusses the various
missions of higher education institutions (HEI) that was raised by Ortega, and
the changes that have emerged when facing the Knowledge society and its
demands. In this essay he established four primary missions that later Ortiz
Reyes (2011) summarizes in four categories: 1 - educate professionals, 2 -
Research, 3 - leadership development, 4 - instill understanding of the
circumstances of their environment (p. 7). This last dimension is directly related
to third mission and it’s the dimension that will ensure that our universities not
only produce well educated citizens but also have great value in terms of history
conscience, culture and social responsibility.
35
Third mission can be associated with what Vallaeys (2007) has called the social
responsibility movement. Social Responsibility of the Universities (SRU)
according to Monica (2002) cited in Syracuse, Ardiles & Pulido (2012), refers
as: the ability of the university to disseminate and implement a set of general
principles and specific values, using four basic processes considered key in
college, such as management or production, teaching, research and extension
university; responding socially to the university community and the country (p.
315).
When an Institution truly understands its social responsibility it serves as a

nudge towards academic innovation, knowledge transfer, economic
development and social progress, institutional coherence, and social
pertinence. The outcomes derived from SRU have great impact on the quality
of life of the surrounding communities and changes the role of students, from
passive learners to active “agents of human development in their country”
(Ferrer, Colmenares & Clemenza, 2010). This role gives the educated citizens
prime opportunity to give back to their community and assume an ethical
commitment to the socio-economic development of their surroundings.
Moreover, Mata (2008) affirms that when the university is socially responsible “it
cares about the impact the university has on the environment, the social
environment and human resources, thus bringing social welfare”.
Venditti & Leydesdorf (2011) stated that universities are the dwelling point for
innovation and that they have the resources to supply the system with valuable
information that once shared, serves as a corner stone for assuming the role of
Third Mission, allowing universities transform into economy drivers and impulse
social wellbeing. This is why Bueno Campos (2007) explained that third
mission is mainly about three concepts: entrepreneurship, innovation and
commitment / social cooperation.
Other research done by Vorley & Nelles (2008) has reconcelptualized

institutional development beyond the third mission and concluded that
Universities should refocus their teaching and research to become generators
of innovation and knowledge transfer. According to them the third mission is a
phenomenon that seeks to encourage universities to develop their socio-
economic potential through knowledge sharing, patents and agreements. This
36
third mission should affect first and second mission, which means it would
strengthen the dynamics and development of teaching and research.
Osorio & Pereira (2011) with the concept of third mission in mind, propose a
shift in gears toward a model of entrepreneurship education. This is very
important because in the knowledge economy, globalization era, the generation
of new knowledge and the wealth of information require enterprising individuals
(Julien, 2005, cited by Osorio & Pereira, 2011). The authors suggest that this
reality demands that educational institutions contribute creatively to share
knowledge and entrepreneurship education, opportunities and risks. According
to the article a report of the European Commission (2009) suggests that
entrepreneurship education should foster creativity, innovation and independent
work. Entrepreneurship and education should not be limited to developing new
business but should be an intrinsic motivation to fight for what you want. It is
through this motivation that the individual will have the skills to carry out
effectively the entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, the authors point out the
need to include entrepreneurship in the curricula of higher education.
Another group of authors view entrepreneurship education as a community

wide responsibility since its goal is be entwine with the social economy. They
talk about the concept of social entrepreneurship (Enciso Santocildes, Gómez
Urquijo, & Mugarra Elorriaga, 2012). According to the authors the interest that
arises towards social entrepreneurship is seen as a key element in the search
for solutions to the problems of the society due to the economic and social
crises that countries living. Dees, Drayton & Bornstein (2011) outlines five
characteristics of entrepreneurship; a powerful idea, creativity, potential to
extend its impact, enterprise quality and strong ethical fiber.
After reviewing the literature one can conclude that social responsibility,
development of social capital, economic development, entrepreneurship and
technology transfer are some of the possible outcomes of the integration and
adoption of third mission in the Universities, when it is incorporated it truly
contributes to improve quality of life of the surrounding communities and thus so
promoting social justice and the possibility of sustainable growth and
development. We can also concur with Foucault (1971) cited by Vorley &
Nelles (2008) when he identifies the importance of universities as a way to
37
lower the apparatus cost and capable of reinventing the social, economic and
political objectives.
Third mission activities will require an extent amount of planning and true
commitment from the HEI, which means it represents a great challenge, but
then also a great opportunity; to lead positive change in communities that need
innovation, entrepreneurship, growth and to be empowered. In the Latin-
American context, particularly Puerto Rico there is little talk about third mission,
although “patenting”, “technology transfer”, “valorization”, “third stream”, or “third
mission” all linked with the research activities of universities turn central in most
of the discussions that take place today on universities. This study will provide
a further understanding of the grasp of the concept and how are third mission
activities taking their important place as the society’s socio-economic generator.
Method
This study followed a qualitative phenomenological approach. It took place

within two phases. In the first, we did an extensive documental research and
analysis. The researchers used web pages, strategic plans, assessment
reports, annual report, news clippings and other documents that allowed the
team to obtain a general view of third mission activities. After the information
was collected, it was analyzed adapting the main indicators and descriptors
proposed by Laredo (2007) in Toward a third mission for Universities. Main
transformations, challenges and emerging patterns in Higher Education
Systems. The findings that are being reported in this paper correspond to the
first phase.
The second phase of the study consisted on carrying out structured interviews
and focus groups with key players from Institutions of Higher Education; private
and public. The information that was obtained was compared, contrasted and
will be analyzed with the documental research findings.
Findings
Documental Analysis
38
We conducted a documental analysis prior to engaging in interviews and focus

groups, to help us scope third mission or third stream activities in the selected
Higher Education Institutions. We reviewed institutional web pages, strategic
plans, assessment reports, annual report, news clippings and other documents
(Appendix A). As part of this phase we also revised in detail all of the mission
statements of the institutions under study. The information was categorized
within an adaptation of main indicators and descriptors proposed by Laredo
(2007).
Mission Analysis
In an effort to understand how immerse are the Higher Education Institutions of

Puerto Rico in third mission activities, we as a research team reviewed the
mission statements of 12 Universities, private and public. The analysis sought
to find third mission language in the following categories: technology transfer,
social responsibility and commitment, entrepreneurship, research and economic
development.
Although third mission as a term does not appear, the values that characterize
third mission are present in the mission statements of universities subjected to
this study, both public and private. Four universities had at least one statement
in its mission relating to technology transfer, emphasizing that the student will
develop the best technologies to make significant contributions to the
development of society. Five of the universities make references to aspects of
academic engagement and social responsibility, which is reflected in their
declarations regarding the importance of building partnerships with the
community, fostering responsibility, cultural awareness and social justice.
Entrepreneurship was another category that we studied. In five of the

institutions we observed in their mission statements language that showed their
concern for solving problems, fostering leadership and entrepreneurship in
students, by providing the skills needed for education, research and community
service. One of the main missions of the University as an academic institution
is research, and from the twelve universities studied, it was present in only five
of the mission statements. Research as a mission statement element was
39
presented in as a way to advance knowledge and foster innovation. As a final

point, we analyzed the category of economic development, which appeared in
seven of the twelve universities. This category is critical because it raises the
responsibility of the university in economic development, and how to best
prepare students to be global citizens who can make meaningful contributions
to society.
Discussion of Findings
The context in which higher education functions is changing dramatically,

Puerto Rico is not an exception. Society is reexamining the relative value of a
college degree, the public still regards higher education as a major instrument
for improving quality of life and for preserving the essential features of the kind
of society it wants to have and feels it deserve. Higher education in turn is
being asked to move more diligently and sensibly toward a solution to the
nation’s challenges (including the economic issues) and better serve the
interests of society more effectively.
Our findings show increased interest in partnerships between the business

world and the academy as a whole and among education entities at all levels.
They also make evident that the State University and three of its campuses –
UPR Mayaguez, UPR Medical Sciences and UPR Rio Piedras- take
precedence in matters of research, publications, patents and “spin offs” over the
private universities studied. However there is still a need to encourage most of
our private institutions to continually improve their programs and operations,
fostering innovations that will better serve their customer needs.
On the other hand, higher education seen as an engine of empowerment as

well as a means of cultural and economic development is facing along with
other private and public entities, dissatisfaction and a question of public trust.
In Puerto Rico, the traditional mission of teaching and research has not been
broadened to include the third mission yet. The general category of “community
service” has not facilitated their engagement with society and industry at a large
scale. While the teaching and research missions of the university are well
40
understood and frequently mentioned its Third Mission is yet to be fully

examined and approaches to its measurement developed.
Lessons learned
Some of the lessons learned from this study are:
1. The Third University Mission in Puerto Rico should take into account at
least three dimensions of the problem. Puerto Rico is characterized by
an economic structures based on small and medium size businesses that
do not have research and development departments. Secondly, we
observed the crisis of the traditional model of university governance
based on bureaucratic and collegial logic in a climate of diminishing
resources for academic research. Third, there is a need to promote new
educational and pedagogical models and new methods of teaching
appears more than urgent. Teaching and research must not ignore the
radical nature of technological change and the importance of the
contextual dimensions of learning and innovation.
2. There is a need to encourage in all the professional body new and wider
managerial and leadership skills to manage the change and increasing
complexity.
3. The ability of universities to develop a wide spectrum of problem solving

activities depend on the overall institutional frames (including fiscal
dimensions) which empower “concurred groups and other NGO’s to
invest in research for addressing the problem they care for.
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43
Appendix A. Documental analysis
Issues University of Puerto Rico Universidad Ana G. Méndez University Other Private Industries
(UPR) Interamericana System (SUAGM)
Researched Campuses: Universidad Metropolitana,
Metropolitan, San Germán Universidad del Turabo
and Bayamón and Universidad del Este
Intellectual property: Total Mayagüez (41) 2 patents UMET (1) University of Sacret Heart-
amount of patents, Rio Piedras, Medical Sciences None
inventions and copyright and other (10) One in the year 2010 and the Turabo (1)
products. (Lobato 2014) other in 2011. Pontifical Catholic University
SUAGM (Associate Vice of Puerto Rico- None
UPR System Inventory President of Intellectual
Directory 2008 (35) Property and Polytechnic University of
Commercialization) Puerto Rico- None
Spin offs: Total amount of Mayagüez (2) 8 businesses and university SUAGM (6) University of Sacret Heart:
independents business that Rio Piedras (2) centers. (2)
emerged from the (Lobato, 2014)
institution. Pontifical Catholic University
of Puerto Rico not found
44
Contracts and collaborative Rio Piedras Campus This University has been UMET (38) University of Sacret Heart:
alliances with public and covenant (40) able to strengthen or started (5)
private organizations: Total Alliances (6) up alliances and contracts Turabo (8)
amount of alliances and with 12 entities. 2 public, 1 Polytechnic University of
contracts. Medical Sciences Campus federal and 9 private UNE (7) Puerto Rico (6)
Covenant (2) organizations.
Alliances (1)
70 Consortiums or
Mayagüez Campus partnerships. In the recent
Covenant (20) annual report 5 were made in
Alliances (14) the year 2012 in the Metro
Campus.
President Report
45
Participation into policy The faculty of the UPR System 11 initiatives regarding policy SUAGM (Public Policy University of Sacret Heart:
making: Total amount of participated in municipality and studies, participation in policy Institute) (1)
initiatives regarding policy government committees formulation and debate
studies, participation in (ex. Planning and Public Pontifical Catholic University
policy formulation and Administration Graduated (7) Book Presentations about of Puerto Rico not found
debate. School) politics and policy dinamics
Polytechnic University of
Puerto Rico- None
Involvement into social and RCM (21) webpage According to the most recent UMET University of Sacret Heart:
cultural life: Total amount of Mayagüez (16) annual report, this institution Complejo Deportivo (6)
museums, orchestra, sport Rio Piedras (20) has not reported 34 cultural 1 Biblioteca con 4
facilities, facilities such as events and the campus has a colecciones especiales Polytechnic University of
libraries, expos, concerts, Museum.- Metro Coral Metropolitana de San Puerto Rico- None
urban development projects Juan
46
and others. Special Activities sponsored
by the Arts Department and Turabo (1 Museum and 1
the campus has a El Centro Library Museum)
de Documentación Histórica 2 Bibliotecas y 2 colecciones
Arturo Morales Carrión - San especiales
German El Concertone
Special Activities sponsored UNE
by student life department- 2 Bibliotecas
Bayamon Cultural activities
Gastronomic Congress
Dissemination of Publications annual report UMET (Revista CRUCE, Pontifical Catholic University
knowledge: Total amount of RCM (175) 29 research projects by Revista Perspectivas of Puerto Rico not found
published research and Mayagüez (14) faculty, Ambientales)
47
initiatives such as research Rio Piedras (23) 13 poster board Publications Committee’ Academics (19)
conferences, forums, presentations and 24 initiatives in promoting faculty Research (9)
scientific fairs and others. Presidential Report from conference presentations by research through residential
March, 2009 Faculty. Metro and workshops. University of Sacret Heart:
International conferences Faculty can choose to
Initiatives 6 international conferences- publish in journals in 9
RCM (25) San German Turabo (Revista 4 Puntos) disciplines (Exact number of
Mayagüez (6) published research was not
Various publications in 9 UNE (Ámbito de Encuentros, determined)
Knowledge transfer disciplines in 9 different CIEE La Revista “Centro de
Mayagüez (3) scholarly journals (Exact Innovación, Empleo y Polytechnic University of
Rio Piedras (1) number of published Emprendimiento”) Puerto Rico (11)
(Lobato 2014) research was not Plasma Engineering
determined)- San German SUAGM Laboratory
48
Annual Forum: “Estadísticas Feria de Ideas
9 research laboratories- e investigación: cultura de
Bayamón retos”
49
3D body scanning technique for anthropometric measurements

and custom clothing designing
Tatjana Spahiu. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Jorgaq Kaҫani. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Ermira Shehi. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Erald Piperi. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Albania)
Abstract
Nowadays, creating better fitting clothing is a critical issue for garment

production industry. More and more people are having problems with garment
sizing because of their non-standard clothing sizes. With advancement in
technology, automated 3D body scanners can capture the shape and size of a
human body in few seconds and further produce its true-to-scale 3D body
model. As shown by many authors, this technology is helping solving fit
problems, by generating accurate anthropometric data from 3D body scanning.
There are various methods used for the 3D measurement of the human body,
depicting their differences and characteristics.
This paper aims to assess the application of 3D body scanning technology

using 2 different scanning systems, Konica Minolta Vivid 910 and David Laser
scanner, to human measurement. The qualitative analyses of 3D body models
are done using the software packages of Geomagic platform, in way to
establish the differences in the scanning techniques.
A custom made suit-wear is designed in order to take the perfect garment fit,
using the anthropometric measurements taken by 3D body model. Designing
the patterns of the suit was done using CAD software Lectra Modaris. The
patterns of the garment are sewn together and are viewed in the 3D model for
checking garment fit.
Accessing 3D scanning technologies will help Albanian garment companies

creating competitive advantages by taking accurate body measurements and
producing garment with perfect fit for their special target groups.
50
Keywords: 3D body scanning; Body measurements; Anthropometric data.
Introduction
The role of garment throughout history has not only been to protect but also to
cover, uncover, to visually enlarge the body or make it look thinner or longer, to
emphasis some parts of it, and to express in many ways the spirit of time
(Darko Ujevic, 2007).
One of the most important elements in overall satisfaction with garments is the
concept of fit. It´s important to wear the right size clothes so that they are
comfortable and fit body as well as possible. Providing the right fit of garment is
one of the main tasks of clothing manufactures. Apparel design and production
expert believe that the fit of a garment is one of the most important factors in
producing garments that flatter the individual (Karla Simmons, 2004).
During the early eighteenth century all clothing was custom-made. This custom-
made clothing exactly fit the individual’s body size and shape (Zakaria, 2014).
The fitting of a garment has evolved over time. Up to the early 1800s, garments
were cut and made to measure (Marie-Eve Faust).
Technological developments, pattern making insights, and mass production

changed how clothing was constructed by the early 1900 (Taylor, 2005).
Garments are manufactured massively using predefined size charts, which
allow for the reduction of production cost. It is, therefore, practically impossible
to obtain a perfect fit between a piece of cloth and an individual buyer (Maria L.
Mpampa, 2010).
Taking anthropometric data for realizing garments is very important to fulfill the
consumer’s satisfaction. The methods and equipment used for taking
anthropometric data have been developed in various field of application, such
as anthropology, ergonomics, clothing design, medicine, etc. The scope of
using anthropometric data in different areas is improving the design of things
and spaces for people. The non-contact anthropometric data acquisition
methods are currently used to solve the problem of acquiring the clients’
measures for individualized production, yet still spread of individualized
51
production is limited by the uniformity of assortment, the labor intensity of

designing, the uncertainty of the result of the construction and the complexity of
the constructing tasks creating an individual product for each customer
(Dāboliņa, 2012)
The 3D whole body scanning system are compused by optical measurements

devices (software and hardware). Many important research issues such as the
3D model construction and representation, landmark identification and
anthropometric data collection are emphasized (Mao-Jiun J. Wang, 2004).
Allowing the quick and consistent extraction of body measurements can
generate customized fit for any number of people. These measurements could
be used repeatedly for various garments without the need for repeated
measurement. The main advantages of 3D body scanning technology is the
short time for taking body dimensions, accurate data, output of this data in a
digital format which can be integrated automatically into CAD systems for
garment design. Importing those data into CAD systems makes possible
creating custom garments according to human body dimensions.
3D body scanning systems
There are various scanning systems used for capturing 3D shape of an object
and used in various fields. The 3D scanning technologies used for the body
measurements extraction on today’s market are based on various systems.
Although there are variability and incomparability of measurements between
them, their common aim is to scientifically extract anthropometric data in a valid
and reliable manner. For the scope of our work is given a description of two
technologies used for body scanning. Laser scanning: these scanners work on
the basis of a light-plane and triangulation method. A laser is used as a light
source and a technology called CCD (couple charged device) scans the field of
view. The CCD detects the displacement of the light on a body. Body scanners
based on laser technology are able to scan about 60.000 points per second.
Structured light body scanners technology can use low cost projectors. They
project a series of white-light stripes on to the subject and are captured by the
52
optical sensor. The 3D shape of the body is described through the curve of the
stripes over the subject (Apeagyei, 2010).
3D body scanners technology used for the measurement of the human body
can be divided into three different groups: laser-scanning, projection of light
patterns, combination modeling and image processing (D'Apuzzo, 2006).
Figure 1. 3D scanning taxonomy
Methodology
During the process of creating custom clothing it is very important that the
designer accesses quickly and accurately the customer’s body form in order to
design patterns with a perfect fit.
The objective of this work was the evaluation of two different scanning systems
for 3D body scanning. In our work we used two types of 3D scanning systems:
Laser Scanner VIVID 910 Konica Minolta (2002) and DAVID Laser-Scanning
package. Both the systems are portable. A group of 4 females and 1 male was
53
chosen to perform the whole work. Ethical explanation was done to ensure data
privacy only for this study purpose. The scanning process was done in the
Laboratory of CAD/CAM and Technology of Garment Production in Polytechnic
University of Tirana. We used static objects as a model for comparison of the
scanning systems. We also used a human body for both the systems. At the
end we realized a suit using anthropometric data taken from digital human
body. The workflow of our work in both systems is as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The workflow of the scanning systems used in our work
Experimental work
3D Laser Scanning Systems
3D Laser Scanner VIVID 910 Konica Minolta (2002) is a portable scanner which
captures the surface of an object from a single position. During the scanning
process, the 3D scanner is mounted on a adjustable tripod. The lens of the
scanner needs focusing on the object being scanned. The laser beam moves
across the object and the light is reflected back to the scanner, which captures
the surface data of the shape and records the measurements of the object at a
certain distance. VIVID 910 is equipped with three types of lens, which are
suitable for the size of the object and distance must be used. In our work we
used a WIDE Lens for object distance Horizontal 725.8 mm and Vertical 544.4
mm. We scanned the objects using Polygon Editing Tool Ver. 2.3 and saved the
scans as .vvd format. The scanner is equipped with a 360o rotary turntable
permitting a full object scan. Different angles of the turntable can be used
54
permitting different view of the object. The first step before starting the scanning
process is the calibration of the chart. The schematic view of the 3D Laser
Scanner VIVID 910 Konica Minolta is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Laser scanning VIVID 910 schematic view
3D Structured Light Systems
The second system used for scanning is an open-source low cost 3D structured
light system (SLS) based on the software platform of the DAVID Vision Systems
GmbH’s DAVID-Laser Scanner. The system consists on a computer, video
camera, a background containing control points and a light projector. On the
shelf hardware and equipments as light projector, web camera and also open
source software can be used for 3D scanning systems (Luigi M. Galantucci,
2014).
Structured Light Scanning (SL) use a video projector instead of the laser.
DAVID was used with the video projector Acer X110 (1920x1080 pixels) to
project a number of stripe patterns onto the object. At Pattern Parameter we
used “Quality” which means the number of patterns is 58. The camera will
55
watch that from a different point of view (above, below, left or right of the
projector) and take (at least) one image of each pattern. Based on the
deformations of the stripe patterns in these images, DAVID will compute a
precise 3D point cloud of the object surface. The camera used in our work is a
uEye and the lens is Fujinon 1: 1.2/6 mm DF6HA–1B. Camera calibration is the
same as for laser scanning. The schematic of the SL system is show in Figure
4.
Figure 4. Structured and light schematic view
Comparing the data derived from the two scanning systems
To compare the 3D body models taken from both scanning systems, we used
Geomagic Studio 2013, which is 3D scanning and data manipulation software
for reverse engineering and mass customization of any physical product or
object to 3D digital model. This software provides tools for capturing and
manipulation of scanned 3D surfaces of objects. We compared the static object
to see the differences of the objects scanned. For purpose of the study, we
used static object in this case mannequin. We scanned mannequins with both
56
the systems. We took 6 scans of the 3D object rotating with 60 degree. After we
made the alignment of the single scans.
Figure 5. 3D Comparison Results
Construction of the clothing patterns garment using those data
Our final scope was testing the garment fit constructed using anthropometric
measurements taken form 3D body model. For construction of the patterns we
have used Lectra Modaris software version V6R1. The patterns were
constructed using dimensions taken from 3D body scanning. The method used
for pattern constructing was Italian method used in garment industry
(Donnanno). The patterns were printed on the plotter Alys 20+.
Figure 6. Extraction of body dimensions needed for garment construction
57
Figure 7. Creation of skirt patterns in Lectra Modaris
Figure 8. Creation of jacket patterns in Lectra Modaris
Testing the garment fit upon the real body
Testing the garment fit upon the real body was done in two cases. In the first
case we tested the garment on the real body and in the second case we
scanned the clothed body. The figures showing the garment fit on real body and
the scan of the suit in the real body are given below in Figure 9.
58
Figure 9. 3D scanning of garment fit on the real body
Results & Conclusions
This study involved the development of a full cycle for custom clothing
production. It focused on digitizing the real human body, taking anthropometric
data necessary for garment construction, construction of the garment using
these anthropometric data and testing the garment on the human body. The
scope was to evaluate the fit of the garment realized with anthropometric data
taken from body scanning.
First we tested two scanning systems with static bodies in this case the
mannequins. We compared the digital model taken from 3D mannequins from
both the scanning systems to evaluate the characteristic of a low cost SLS 3D
scanning system. The data derived from both scanning systems was compared
in Geomagic studio 2013 software, to evaluate the 3D body model as show in
Figure 5.
Conclusions
Creating better fitting clothing is a critical issue for garment production industry.
The objectives of this work was creating and testing a full cycle of garment
designing. Using new technologies for improving consumer’s satisfaction with
garment fit is a challenge in the clothing industry. In our work we used two
different 3D scanning systems: Laser Scanner VIVID 910 Konica Minolta (2002)
59
and DAVID Laser-Scanning package. Both the systems are portable. We

scanned static objects like mannequins and real human body. Our scope was to
test a low cost scanning system with a commercial scanning system and
extraction of anthropometric data. 3D comparing results of both scanning
systems showed good results. These anthropometric data taken from the Laser
Scanner VIVID 910 Konica Minolta were used to construct the patterns of the
suit. For evaluating the accuracy of body dimensions extracted manually and
not automatically from 3D body model. The suit resulted with a good fit. The full
cycle of garment production tested in the Laboratory of CAD/CAM and
Technology of garment production, part of Textile and Fashion Department
which resulted successfully.
This was the first step in using 3D technology for realizing made-to-measure
garments in Albania. The full cycle of garment production involved the 3D body
scanning, extracting body dimensions and using these body dimensions for
garment production will be a new innovation for Albanian garment companies,
for providing custom design services to the consumers seeking personal fit
garments.
References
Apeagyei, P. R. (2010). Application of 3D body scanning technology to human

measurement for clothing Fit. International Journal of Digital Technology
and its Application.
Dāboliņa, A. V. (2012). Virtual Garment Creation. In Applications of Virtual

Reality (pp. 49-72).
D'Apuzzo, N. (2006). State of the art of the methods for static 3D scanning of
partial or full human bodye. Paris: Springer.
Darko Ujevic, G. N. (2007). New Anthropometric Instruments. Coll. Antropol,

1031–1038.
Donnanno, A. La technica dei modelli.
Karla Simmons, C. L. (2004). Female Figure Identification Technique (FFIT).

Journal Of Textile And Apparel, Technology And Managment, 4(1).
60
Luigi M. Galantucci, E. P. (2014). Sermi-Automatic Low cost 3D Laser scanning

systems reverse engineering. Cirp Global Web Conference.
Mao-Jiun J. Wang, W.-Y. W.-C.-N. (2004). Establishing anthropometric data

from whole-body scanner. Fifth Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and
Managment Systems Conference, 6.
Maria L. Mpampa, P. N. (2010). A new methodology for the development of

sizing systems for the mass customization of garments. International
Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, 22(1), 49-68.
Marie-Eve Faust, S. C. (n.d.). Implementing 3D body scanning in retail

operations.
Taylor, A. U. (2005). An experimental study to test a 3D laser scanner for body

measurements and virtual garment design in fashion education.
Zakaria, D. G. (2014). Anthropometry, apparel sizing and design. Cambrige,

UK: Woodhead Publishing Series in Textiles.
61
Education for Innovative and Inclusive Economic Development
Jozef Bushati. University of Shkodra Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
Adriana Galvani. University of Bologna (Italy)
Abstract
Innovation is a desirable outcome in the “information-everywhere society”. It

mainly occurs within firms, which are part of systems where they interact in with
other stakeholders, so that they create and promote knowledge and technology
flows. These innovation systems derive from the interweaving of economic,
historical and cultural factors, and of course education is part of them. In order
to manage the increasing complexity triggered by this innovation, governments
should create synergies between educational policies and economic
development. Education plays a basic role in providing high-skilled students,
citizens and workers, because these effective skills are generated through
innovative teaching, which triggers the adoption, absorption, and adaptation of
technological knowledge. In this view, individuals’ skills are related to
productivity and labor-market outcomes, so that better education generates
better economic performance and more social inclusion.
Keywords: Education, Innovation, Technologies, Human Capital, Sustainable

Economic Development
Introduction
In 2013, as requested by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN

Commission on Science and Technology (CSTD) suggested two fundamental
issues to be developed: “Science, technology and innovation for sustainable
cities and peri-urban communities and Internet broadband for an inclusive
digital society” (UNCTAD, 2013, 14). It can be so argued that in the current
information-society, sustainable economic growth and social improvement
increasingly depend on innovation, which can be defined as an idea, practice,
62
or object that is considered as new by a unit of adoption and carried out into
practice (Rogers, 2003). Puting in this terms, innovation is “the implementation
of a new or significantly improved product or process, a new marketing method,
or a new organisational method” (OECD, 2007, p. 46). It also includes
“incremental adaptation and gradual adoption in different contexts” (Hoidn and
Kärkkäinen, 2014, 7), such as the unpredictable society shaped by the web.
In order to manage the complexity triggered by innovation, new educational

policies are required to foster sustainable development. These policies should
not simply concern the generation of new knowledge, but also what regards the
“managing processes of learning, or creating and developing the competences
and capabilities that are required at various levels for such technological
learning to succeed” (UNCTAD, 2011, 9). Desirable outcomes of educational
strategies for the “information everywhere society” (Ting, 2011) should be:
“fostering long-term knowledge retention and application, developing thinking
and creativity skills, as well as social and behavioural skills (problem-solving,
critical thinking, motivation, selfconfidence, team work)” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen,
2014, 6). All these skills should promote the highly interwoven modern economy
ecosystem, which includes “a complex set of relationships, synergies and
correlations between technology and business, governance and innovation, and
production and consumption, which involve different stakeholders and which
contribute to economic and social development” (UNCTAD, 2013b, 11).
According to this view, “it is how this ecosystem evolves, rather than the
potential of the technology alone, that will determine outcomes” (ibidem) for
economic development. Education therefore should build high-skilled people
who could manage the evolution of this ecosystem.
Innovation in firms and in education
Innovation occurs essentially within firms, but these are not engaged in
technological learning and innovative activity by themselves. They are involved
in systems “in which they interact with other agents, public and private, that
generate an intermediate knowledge and technology flows” (UNCTAD, 2011, 6).
These innovation systems are the result of the interaction of several economic,
63
historical and cultural factors, and of course education is a part of them.

However, systems' features are not static and “targeted policy actions can
profoundly affect the dynamics and effectiveness of a country's innovation
system” (UNCTAD, 2011, 6). An investment policy is so highly required to
generate an educational strategy which can trigger a productive skill-creation to
be exploited by firms. This could therefore induce and empower the sustainable
development.
Indeed, both governments and entrepreneurs are demanding “skill sets for
innovation such as technical skills, thinking and creativity skills, as well as social
and behavioural skills” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014, 6). Hence, effective
innovation requires a large number of highly educated people equipped with
diversified skill sets. It is increasingly acknowledged that future entrepreneurs
will require a large range of skills to be able to meet the demands of the
changing economy (OECD, 2010). According to Stefano Scarpetta, Director for
Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD, “promoting access to
quality job is a key point for inclusive economic growth” (OECD, 2014). The
skills of the students/workers are therefore key elements in future (and current)
knowledge-based economies (cfr. Hanushek and Woessmann, 2008) which are
featured by non-standard activities (Autor and Brendan, 2013). For this reason,
the potential for job creation and skill creation, development and up-keeping
should be the main criteria for deciding investment policies “in areas crucial for
development priorities, whether technical, vocational, managerial or
entrepreneurial skills” (UNCTAD, 2012, 27). In this perspective, an interaction
between educational policy and entrepreneurship should strongly occur, but it is
complex, because it involves several elements of a country's overall economic
development and growth strategy: “human resource development,
infrastructure, technology, enterprise development, and others” (UNCTAD,
2012, 20).
Teaching the Skills
Government authorities should “work coherently towards the common national

objectives of sustainable development and inclusive growth, and seek to create
64
synergies” (UNCTAD, 2012, 20). Synergic actions must be adopted since the
earliest stages of the design, as well as the involvement of several
stakeholders, including investors, civil society and educational system. It can be
so argued that the effectiveness of these policies depends on “the capabilities
of institutions charged with the implementation and enforcement of policies and
measures, rules and regulations” (UNCTAD, 2012, 23).
Among these institutions, education system plays a basic role in providing

students, citizens and workers with skills for innovation, but “a number of
important questions remains as to what kind of education teaching can be
conducive to the strengthening of skills for innovation” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen,
2014, 6). In fact, effective skills are generated only if innovative teaching can
promote “the adoption, absorption and adaptation of technological knowledge”
(UNCTAD, 2011, 9). From these considerations, a huge challenge for teachers
is arising. They are required by governments and entrepreneurships to fully
develop a variety of innovation skills simultaneously and effectively (Hoidn and
Kärkkäinen, 2014). It has been detected that “teaching attributes such as
organisation, expressiveness, enthusiasm and rapport/interaction” (Hoidn and
Kärkkäinen, 2014, 6) positively affect student's learning and persistence. The
following three overlapping sets of 21st century skills for innovation (OECD,
2013) are supposed to be fostered by teachers:
 Technical skills, such as disciplinary know-what and know-how.

Innovative or creative students/workers “often require specialist skills in
their field – both in terms of knowledge and methods” (Hoidn and
Kärkkäinen, 2014, 7).
 Creativity skills, such as curiosity, critical and argumentative thinking,

problem solving and making horizontal connections (OECD, 2013).
 Social and behavioural skills, such as “interest, engagement, self-

directed learning, self-confidence, organisation, communication, (cross-
cultural) collaboration, teamwork and leadership” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen,
2014, 7).
Some more detailed considerations are here required, to better focus the
teaching issues connected to innovation:
65
 Innovation demands for open-minded students and requires them a

relentless critical questioning of well established ideas or practices. So
teachers should ask students to come up with as many original or
unusual solutions he/she can conceive. Then teachers should assess the
quantity and originality of responses to questions that do not demand a
specific answer.
 Problem solving in technology-rich environments should be considered

by teachers as student's ability to originally “use digital technology,
communication tools and networks to acquire and evaluate information,
communicate with others and perform practical tasks” (Hanushek et al.,
2013, 11).
 Creativity is generally considered “an important source of innovation,

whereas innovating often consists in connecting seemingly unrelated
ideas also from different disciplines” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014, 7).
Teachers should therefore encourage and positively assess unexpected
horizontal connections.
 Entrepreneurial competences, such as self-confidence and long-term

vision, are important for designing and carrying through an innovative
project. Teachers could help students to develop the ability to plan and
manage projects by proposing multi-disciplinary tasks to be
accomplished by means of using several skills.
Six principles for effective teaching
Even if innovation issue strictly connects education and economic development,

teacher's activity cannot be totally oriented by mere market demands. In fact,
Ramsden points out six teaching principles (2003, 93-99). According to him,
teachers should:
1. Grant high quality of explanation and spur students on to do something

with interest and passion.
2. Be concerned and respect students and their different learning

processes.
66
3. Adopt an appropriate assessment and feedback, giving helpful

comments on students’ work and bestowing feedback on students’
progress.
4. Clearly define attainable goals and challenge.
5. Trigger independence, control and engagement.
6. Be open to change and to learn from students
By then, following Ramsden's guidelines, it is commonly accepted that “a

holistic approach to promote innovation through the inclusion of aspects other
than financing, such as technology transfer, linkages between research
institutions, business and government, human capital development and
infrastructure” (UNCTAD, 2013a, 8) is required to ensure the success of the
efforts made to improve educational and economic system (European
Commission, 2011). In fact, besides mere economic elements, innovation
strongly demands an investment on human capital. The most relevant elements
of modern human capital are: “communication skills, including the ability to
persuade others, as well as the ability to work with others in a team and
coordinate activities” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014, 7). In addition, positive
emotions and engagement play a crucial role on human capital growth and on
study persistence, which can be seen as a proxy for learning (Pascarella and
Terenzini, 1991, 2005; Nelson et al., 2008).
Conclusion
Two sectors dealing with innovation must be mutually considered: education

and economic development. The former must forge students with strong
innovation skills, because they can promote, manage and perform innovation in
tomorrow's workplace (Barrett and Moore, 2011; Savery, 2006). The latter
demands broader and broader range of skills in the workplace because of a
structural shift towards services and skill-intensive jobs (Cedefop, 2010;
European Commission, 2010; Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014). This demand
should stir education system to generate skills such as: critical thinking,
creativity, problem solving and ability to look at things from broad perspectives
(Autor and Price, 2013). These skills are required because future workers must
67
“work in teams, communicate their messages effectively and adapt themselves

to changing circumstances – interact with their environment, instead of working
in isolation” (Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014, 7). It has been demonstrated that
“higher cognitive skills are systematically related to higher wages” (Hanushek et
al., 2013, 20).
It can be henceforth argued that the returns for skills are economically
meaningful. However, in order to better analyze the pattern of returns for skills,
individual improvements must be considered in “a more general human capital
model” (Hanushek et al., 2013, 6), not only in economic terms. Once an
educational strategy has been designed, it is also important to raise awareness
concerning innovative skills (UNCTAD, 2013b), which are appreciated by
modern knowledge-based economies. In fact, Angel Gurrìa, president of OECD,
recently agreed with this consideration (OECD, 2014), strongly asserting that
better education generates better economic performance. Individuals’ skills are
related to “productivity and labor-market outcomes” (Hanushek et al., 2013, 20).
Learning-processes and teaching-methodologies focused on the demands for
life and work in the 21st century are therefore required as schools “are currently
preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist, to use technologies that have
not yet been invented, and to solve problems that we don't even know are
problems yet” (Darling-Hammond, 2008, 1-2). In order to provide equitable
access to innovative knowledge, the Tunis Agenda suggested to improve
“relevant education and training programmes and systems including lifelong
and distance learning” (UN, 2005, 90 c). Unfortunately, the theory-practice gap
may exist in many disciplines with students' competences not necessarily
meeting the needs of the professional life (cfr. Armstrong and Fukami, 2009;
Bennis and O’Tool, 2005; Hoidn and Kärkkäinen, 2014).
References
Armstrong, S.J., & Fukami, C.V. (Eds.) (2009). The Sage Handbook of
Management Learning, Education and Development. SAGE Publications
Ltd: London.
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Barrett, T., & Moore, S. (Eds.) (2011). New Approaches to Problem-Based

Learning. Revitalising your Practice in Higher Education. Routledge: New
York, NY.
Bennis, W.G., & O’Toole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way.
Harvard Business Review, 83(5), 96-104.
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understanding. In L. Darling- Hammond, B. Barron, P.D. Pearson, A.H.
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economic development. Journal of Economic Literature, 46(3), 607-668.
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Education: A Literature Review on the Effectiveness of Problem-based
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k3tsj67l226-en
Nelson Laird, T. F., Chen, D., & Kuh, G. D. (2008). Classroom practices at
institutions with higher-thanexpected persistence rates: What student
engagement data tell us. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 115,
85-99.
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DOI:10.1787/9789264203488-en
OECD (2014). OECD Forum Inclusive Societies.
Pascarella, E. T. & Terenzini, P. (2005). How college affects students (Vol. 2): A
third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. (1991). How college affects students: Findings
and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in higher education (2nd edition).

London: Routledge.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
Savery, J. R. (2006). Overview of problem-based learning: Definitions and

distinctions. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning,
1(1), 9-20.
Ting, Y. L. T. (2011). CLIL: towards brain-compatible science-education. In D.

Marsh, & O. Meyer (Eds.), Quality Interface: examining evidence and
exploring solutions in CLIL (pp. 12-26). Eichstaett: Eichstaett Academic
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05/TUNIS/DOC/6(Rev. 1)-E
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Publications.
71
The Evolution of University Technology Transfer towards

Involvement with Industry: the Case of the Politecnico di Torino
Augusto Cocorullo. Università di Napoli Federico II (Italy)
Abstract
The Italian university scene was strongly influenced by the advent of so-called
“knowledge society” that has resulted in a substantial transformation of the main
institutions of knowledge production, including universities, in terms of services
to offer and functions to performer, in order to give concrete answers to the
increasingly insistent demands from society: not only traditional education of
young people and the production of knowledge, but also training for life-long
learning, continuous training and upgrading, advice, assistance and technology
transfer, new modes of knowledge production. Moreover, ever the past three
decades, university research activities have increasingly become organized
around economic imperatives. Therefore, in this paper it is analyzed the case of
the Politecnico di Torino and of I3P, the Innovative Enterprise Incubator of the
Politecnico di Torino, in terms of connection with the economic environment, in
the light of the idea that changes in technology have enhanced the connections
between research universities and economic policies (Geiger 2006). I3P’s
mission is to promote the creation of new science-based businesses with
validated growth potential, either founded by university researchers or
entrepreneurs from outside the university sphere. I3P provides open spaces
and professional consulting services to start business as well as a network of
entrepreneurs, managers and investors. Founded on 1999, I3P is located in
Torino (Italy) and by now has launched 160 start-ups that have been able to
exploit the results of research in different fields: from cleantech to medtech,
from Information Technology to electronics, mechanical, energy, to other
industrial. Its mission is to promote the creation of new science-oriented firms
with high-growth potential. The activity of I3P follows the global strategies of the
Piedmont region, in order to sustain research, technology innovation and new
entrepreneurship. Specifically it aims to: provide consulting services during the
enterprise creation process (these services are free of charge); manage a
72
network and a high profile marketplace involving entrepreneurs, managers and

investors; provide a location for enterprises to create reciprocal synergies.
Keywords: third mission; economic development; technology transfer
Introduction
The Politecnico di Torino was first established in 1859 as the Technical School
for Engineers. In 1906 the Regio Politecnico di Torino was founded in its current
form. The Politecnico is globally ranked amongst the top 100 universities in
Engineering (57th place in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking). The
mission of the university focuses on five points: training, research, technological
transfer, services for the local area and finance. The Politecnico has a long
tradition of collaboration with the industry (particularly, in the past, with FIAT),
which helps their graduates find a job more quickly: 80% of graduates are
employed within a year from graduation, compared to the 61% average for Italy.
Overview of the University
The Politecnico is governed by a Rector, the Academic Senate and the Board
of Governors. The Rector acts as the Chairman of the Academic Senate and
the Board of Governors. It has three Vice Rectors in charge of the Third Mission
of the Politecnico:
 Vice-Rector for support and Initiatives in Social Integration and Rights of

Disabled People;
 Vice-Rector for Special Projects and Professionalizing Education;
 Vice-Rector for Cultural Initiatives.
The Politecnico consists of four Schools of Engineering, two Schools of

Architecture and the Graduate School, which was set up in 1998 to overlook all
aspects of graduate studies. The 18 Departments of the Politecnico organise
research in a wide range of scientific sectors. Teaching is organised in such a
73
way as to overcome departmental boundaries, allowing more flexibility. The

Departments include:
 Control and Computer Engineering
 Electronics
 Electrical Engineering
 Energetics
 Aerospace Engineering
 Housing and City
 Physics
 Mathematics
 Mechanics
 Human Settlements Science and Technology
 Architectural and Industrial Design
 Building Engineering and Territorial Systems
 Materials Science and Chemical Engineering
 Production Systems and Business Economics
 Structural and Geotechnical Engineering
 Land, Environment and Geo-Engineering
 Inter-University Department for Territorial Studies and Planning
 Hydraulics, Transport and Civil Infrastructures
The Politecnico offers thus two main types of Interdepartmental Centres: those
whose functions are crucial for the organisation of the whole university
(Architecture Interdepartmental Teaching Services, Politecnico Library System,
Centre for ICT Services and Centre for Distance Learning and Multimedia), and
those relevant to the organisation of teaching and/or research in a specific
geographical area or in one specific research field (Prototyping Centre and
Politecnico Centre for Quality).
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In 2010/2011, the Politecnico had 28,777 students (65% undergraduates and

35% graduates) and nearly 900 academic staff (32% Professors, 40% Assistant
Professors and 28% Associate Professors). In 2010/11 it offered 53 educational
programmes and 124 courses (2007/2008). Its budget for 2010 was 380 million
euros, of which approximately 60% comes from partnerships with public and
private institutions. Currently there are approximately 3,500 international
students studying at the Politecnico and 3,100 internships are offered to the
students. In addition, the Politecnico has nearly 350 international cooperation
agreements.
The main research areas include industrial engineering, information

technologies, civil/architectural engineering, environmental engineering,
management engineering, architecture and industrial design. Research
activities focus especially on ICT, sustainable energy, automotive,
nanotechnology, aerospace and aeronautics, environment, and management.
Institutional Perspective to U3M
The most important channel of technology and knowledge transfer at the

Politecnico (as in the other Italian universities) is private consultancy carried out
by individual professors. The consultancy is usually carried out in one of the
following three ways: (a) full time professors can act as private consultants, but
can only engage with companies approved by the Politecnico; (b) companies
pay the Politecnico, which retains 30% of the money and devolves the
remaining 70% to the professor; (c) part-time professors, whose salaries
approximately correspond to 30% of the full time professors’, can work with
companies on an unpaid agreement (there are some time limitations imposed,
but no authorisation is needed). The number of part-time professors is therefore
a good indicator of the level of these types of activities.
As for institutional activities, the most important 3M activities are in the field of
technology transfer, among which can be quoted the following:
I3P Incubatore Imprese Innovative Politecnico di Torino, which will be described

later.
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The Cittadella Politecnica. The main project of the Cittadella Politecnica

(Polytechnic City) endeavours to conceive a new role and a new strategy for the
Politecnico on the regional territory and to provide spaces for productive and
directional activities; at the same time, the project provides services for
companies, universities and citizens, implemented by research and didactic
activities. The main objectives include:
 becoming a top quality centre of research and education and encourage

initiatives in favour of the social knowledge of science, technology and
innovation;
 creating a systematic and structured offer of long-term education;
 giving space and encouraging multidisciplinary initiatives of education;
 creating a Torino Business School with the Athenaeums of Piedmont, the

entrepreneurial associations, the Banking Foundations and the Region;
 offering integrated services.
The Cittadella Politecnica project is localised on the areas of the “Former

Workshops Great Repairs” and owns 170,000sqm of space close to the main
campus.
The Politecnico Business Research Centre. The centre, located in the

Cittadella, offers modular spaces for offices, laboratories and factory facilities to
create a common workspace to be shared with industries. It aims to develop
permanent relations with companies which want to work with universities to
foster innovation.
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella. The ISMB was founded in 2000 by the private‐
law foundation Compagnia di San Paolo and the Politecnico di Torino. Since
2001 several other corporations such as Motorola, SKF, STMicroelectronics
and Telecom Italia Lab have joined the partnership. The activities of the
Institute are carried out mainly with the financial support of Compagnia di San
Paolo, the membership fee paid by the four ordinary partners, and additional
contributions made by the Ministry of University Education and major public and
private, national and European organizations.
76
The main activities and outcomes are: Technology transfer, joint applied
research laboratories, spinoffs, programs on higher education, postgraduate
and master programs, exchange of academics and human resources, creation
of jobs. The main laboratories are: Antennas and Electromagnetic Compatibility,
E-Security, Photonics, Materials and Microsystems, Galileo Satellite Navigation,
Networking laboratory, Services and Applications laboratory, Radio
Technologies for Multimedia Applications. In partnership with the Politecnico the
ISMB runs higher education and postgraduate activities. At present the ISMB
processes 20 national research projects, 40 projects in collaboration with
industries and 20 projects financed by the European Union.
The ISMB was created for the purpose of allowing researchers from the
Politecnico and industrial partners to meet and work together in order to enable
industry to take advantage of research results cutting the costs and reducing
the times of trials and adjustments. The ISMB employs directly or indirectly 250
researchers and has a budget of 12M€. The ISMB’s president, who is a former
Rector of the Politecnico is mainly responsible for establishing and taking care
of the relationship to the member enterprises, the university, the ministries, the
local authorities and other potential, non funding external stakeholders. The
managing director is responsible for all issues related to the internal functioning
of the Institute. In addition ISMB has a Board of Directors, which includes seven
representatives of both the university and private entities.
The key success factors are:
1) The right combination of two main partners: the Compagnia San Paolo,
an important foundation based in Turin with the mission of fostering
regional development, and the Politecnico di Torino, a prestigious
technological university with a strong scientific park.
2) The leadership of the former rector of the Politecnico is able to connect

different elements in one big project.
3) The research approach is extremely cooperative with enterprises 114

and the flexible way of managing the ISMB.
4) The permanent financial support of the CSP (supporting the ISMB with
5M€ yearly).
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The number of academics, laboratory technicians, Phd students and post-doc

active in partnerships is around 500. There is a Technology Transfer Office, and
there is a whole administrative department SARTT – Support Area for Research
and TT. It involves the following activities: fund-raising (from EU, national and
international sources); patent management; spin-offs; coordination activities
and Innovation Front End (marketing included), promotion and dissemination.
The staff, dedicated to 3M activities, can be estimated at 15 people. As for
funds and revenues, the data is the following: in the three years 2009-2011, out
of a total of 2376 reaearch and technology transfer projects, there were 1860
projects developed for third parties (i.e. firms, other public or private institutions)
and 211 regionally funded projects. The implied funds were respectively € 62
millions and € 21 millions, out of a sum of € 127 millions, that is more that 2/3 of
the overall budget of external funded projects.
Activities encompass mostly technology transfer and cooperative research, but

there are some also life-long learning activities (Masters Programmes designed
specifically for industry, courses and short courses). There are also activities
referred to organisation of events open to the public, students teaching
computer skills to the patients of trauma departments, etc. For the time being
there is no structure for Social Engagement activities at the Politecnico.
University policy and strategy towards 3M activities
Third mission activities are encompassed in the multi-year planning (Strategic

Plan) of the Politecnico. As previously stated, the reference is mainly (a) for
technology transfer, (b) the attraction of industrial research (Cittadella
Politecnica) and spin-offs (I3P Incubator). It has been emphasised the
importance of policy cycles and learning from failures in the implementation of
policy in regard to Third Mission projects. Sometimes wrong policies, or right
policies introduced at the wrong time, can refrain an institution from considering
different options and developing a better understanding of the issues related to
Third Mission projects. It has been evinced that an initial amateur phase may
facilitates later professional development.
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The main issue remains the lack of human resources, along with the
disproportion between the expectations of the decision-makers and the
resources employed to achieve them. Currently, Third Mission activities comply
with several internal regulations, for example the authorisation of full time
professors, but in Politecnico there is quite a wider opening of the management
towards the possibility to additional individual revenues coming from research
and 3M activities. Through participating in 3M activities, in fact an academic can
add up to the 100% to his own salary.
Policy makers need time to develop an understanding of Third Mission

activities. It can be given the example of the ‘fake incubator’, meaning that no
companies failed in it and therefore didn’t virtually need the ‘incubation’ period.
But if no companies fail it means that they are not innovative enough, which
contradicts the purpose of an incubator. However, from a political and
psychological perspective, the success of the incubator gave confidence to the
decision-makers and made it easier to support those decisions, proving to be a
positive experience for the development of TTO.
The national policy ambiguously promotes Third Mission. A first national push to
Third Mission was introduced in 2001 by Berlusconi’s government and a first
intentional effort was the setting up of the Patent Commission, whose purpose
was the evaluation of patents. In 2006 there was an initiative for setting up
TTOs at Italian universities. On paper, the importance of Third Mission projects
is emphasised at all government levels, including national, regional and local.
But it has been highlighted that the expectations placed on universities in
regard to their role in social and economic development are often almost
unrealistic, especially at the local level. Contradiction raise often. E.g. an
agency for evaluation of universities in Italy has been set up in 2010 and the
first foreseen activity was the measurement of Third Mission activities.
Unfortunately, no sings of Third Mission evaluation have been given so far. At
regional level, on the contrary, quite a wide financial support has been given to
some (especially technology transfer) 3M activities.
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Characteristics of U3M Activities
The Politecnico is highly committed to Third Mission activities in its Strategic

Plan 2007. The plan, in the Strategic Line 6 states: “Strong ties with institutions,
enterprises and professions” reflects the national and international policy drivers
of Third Mission projects: “Recent policy guidelines regarding development and
innovation support, both on the national and international scale, emphasise the
core role of academic institutions in local development processes. In particular,
such guidelines affirm the need to define a model for involving universities in
processes regarding the social, economic and cultural development of local
systems, comprehensively structured to encompass the many and diverse
occasions in which associations between the academic system, institutions,
enterprises and professions translate into the transfer of knowledge,
technology, values and behaviour and governance models.”
The Strategic Plan also states emphases the Politecnico commitment to Third
Mission and Technology Transfer: “Enhancements of the quantity and quality of
the relations with local institutions, as well as with the entrepreneurial and
professional world, standing recognition of its own indefeasible decisional
autonomy, is therefore one of the University’s principal strategic axes and may
be structured in a number of major lines. For this purpose, the University
intends to affirm its commitment in support of technology transfer, and in
particular of the human resource aspect, encouraging researcher mobility
between the academic institution and the entrepreneurial world, the creation of
join laboratories, the enhancement of existing public and private laboratories
and the joint definition of learning paths of mutual interest. (…) The University
proposes to support intense modes of technology transfer implementing,
alongside the process if spatial proximity between universities and the
entrepreneurial world, which is in progress within the Cittadella Politecnica,
advanced form of proximity, based on the consistency of specialisations, lexical
and cultural homogenisation, and on the shared definition of abstraction plans
and of positioning inside the research stream.”
The Strategy identifies four actions in order to achieve the Strategic Line 6:
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 promotion of cooperation between Politecnico and enterprises, also

through spatial contiguity;
 definition of learning path in conjunction with the entrepreneurial,

professional and institutional world;
 improvement of exchanges between the University and bridging

institutions;
 protection and valorisation of intellectual property.
Another aspect related to Third Mission activities covered by the Strategic Plan
is the “Creation of University spaces open to the local community”. This initiative
is related to the Politecnico’s plan to take part in a new territorial strategy in
order to enhance its role as main actor in the development and economic
growth of the Region and to support technological innovation of production
processes and the creation of new professional expertise. As for the structures,
it have been already quoted the Technology Transfer Office and the STARRT
Department.
I3P, the Innovative Enterprise Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino
I3P, the Innovative Enterprise Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino, is a non-

profit joint-stock consortium (S.c.p.a.) constituted by the Politecnico di Torino,
the Province of Torino, the Chamber of Commerce of Torino, Finpiemonte,
Torino Wireless Foundation, and the City of Torino. I3P was established to
promote and support the creation of hi-tech enterprises, building on the
innovative potential developed in research institutions across the territory. More
specifically, I3P:
 selects business ideas with a high potential for growth, offers assistance
free of charge to aspiring entrepreneurs with knowledge-based business
ideas, and supports start-up enterprises in the their first delicate years of
life;
 offers investors on the lookout for innovative businesses with a rich,

exclusive portfolio of opportunities, assisting them in their investment
decisions while guaranteeing the confidentiality of negotiations;
81
 offers managers and professionals the opportunity to build contacts and

work with businesses with attractive prospects for growth.
I3P’s activities fall within the greater global framework of strategies for the
Piedmont region, aimed at promoting research, technological innovation and
new entrepreneurship. I3P today is Italy’s leading university-based enterprise
incubator, and one of the biggest in Europe. The goal of I3P is to promote the
creation and growth of knowledge-based enterprises that can benefit from the
Incubator’s close ties to the Politecnico di Torino, and its capacity to catalyse,
stimulate and drive cutting-edge business initiatives. The close relationship
between the Politecnico and I3P is of great value to both parties. On the one
hand, enterprises in the incubator can take advantage of the proximity of the
technical university to access its knowledge base and research labs. On the
other hand, I3P provides the Politecnico with business training courses and
offers students and researchers a concrete opportunity to go into business,
representing an important outlet for the direct transfer of technological
innovation from the university lab to the production chain.
The objective is thus to encourage students, young graduates and staff at the
Politecnico and other research centres in Piedmont, as well as other aspiring
entrepreneurs who can benefit from the proximity of the university departments,
to take on the business challenge and support them in the start-up of a new
enterprise. The activities of I3P are aimed at:
 students, researchers and lecturers of the Politecnico di Torino and

public research institutions;
 newly formed partnerships and companies in their first year of business

life;
 companies interested in launching spin-offs;
 anyone who can benefit from the proximity of the technical university’s
labs;
 potential investors wishing to invest in high-potential businesses;
 managers and professionals interested in working with selected start-

ups;
82
 other incubators, universities and research centres wishing to join I3P’s

network of services and contacts.
In 2014, I3P ranked fifth in Europe and fifteenth in the world ranking UBI
(University Business Incubator), the Global Benchmark Report annual ranking
of the best academic incubators. The ranking, relized by sweden Ubi Index
(University Business Incubator), considered 300 incubators in 67 countries,
evaluating assessment, benchmarks index and performances.
I3P’s mission is to promote the creation of new science-based businesses with

validated growth potential, either founded by university researchers or
entrepreneurs from outside the university sphere. It provides open spaces and
professional consulting services to start a business as well as a network of
entrepreneurs, managers and investors. I3P until now has launched 161 start-
ups that have been able to exploit the results of research in different fields: from
cleantech to medtech, from Information Technology to electronics, mechanical,
energy, to other industrial sectors.
In 2011, I3P launched TreataBit, an incubator dedicated to consumers digital

projects, such as portals, e-commerce, social networking sites, web and mobile
applications. Since november 2011, TreataBit has supported 152 business
ideas, 82 of them launched their product/service and 36 became startups.
Every year I3P collects some 300 new business ideas, examines about 100
business plans in detail and digital projects, and accepts 15 new enterprises.
Promoter of important initiatives for technology transfer, incubation and growth
of enterprise, the activity of I3P follows the global strategies of Piedmont in
order to sustain research, technology innovation and new entrepreneurship.
Specifically it aims to:
 provide consulting services during the enterprise creation process (these

services are free of charge);
 manage a network and a high profile marketplace involving

entrepreneurs, managers and investors;
 provide a location for enterprises to create reciprocal synergies.
83
 I3P is open to students, researchers, Politecnico faculty members and

members of other research bodies, enterprises which plan to create spin-
offs for the exploitation of research results, and anyone else interested in
the creation of a knowledge-based firm and which could benefit from
being located at the Politecnico and Cittadella.
The companies located in I3P pay a monthly fee inclusive of all services
(consulting, real estate, financial advisory, networking etc.). The fee is aligned
to the market rate and it is increased with time according to the growth of the
company. In some cases, I3P can ask for a percentage of the turnover in year 4
and 5 after the company leaves the incubator instead of the fee. In this way the
incubator shares the risk with the company. The incubator offers the following
services:
 tutoring on ideas and start-ups, and support in business plan

development;
 technical, managerial, administrative, legal and intellectual property

consultancy;
 team building;
 support in accessing public funding and R&D;
 special relationships with banks, helping to secure loans at preferential

conditions;
 links with equity investors (business angels, firms, Venture Capital

funds);
 networking with local enterprises and employers’ associations.
Up to 2009, I3P created 336 hi-tech start-ups; its companies generated over 78
million aggregate revenues, employed 1,462 people and registered 134
patents. 80 out of 140 companies that went through the incubator survived in
the world outside the incubator. The Politecnico is one of the recognised Italian
Patent Information Points. In 2004, I3P won the 3rd Edition of the “Best
Science-Based Incubator Award”, in which more than 50 incubators
participated.
84
One of the goals of I3P is to promote exchange and networks with institutions
and businesses at the local level and, more broadly, at the national and
international levels. This is why I3P is constantly committed to building
synergies between hosted start-ups, encouraging contacts with the
Politecnico’s laboratories, and strengthening networks with local bodies,
associations, and companies present on the territory. The aim of such networks
is to:
 build partnerships;
 create opportunities;
 share experience;
 develop skills;
 do business;
 receive services.
Specially-designed spaces have been created to encourage networking,

including meeting rooms, a refreshment area and the Agora, the fully-equipped
function centre for hosting events. The Agora was designed as the heart and
soul of the Incubator and the entire Cittadella Politecnica. It offers a showcase
for the world to see, an open space in physical terms, but also a virtual forum at
the disposal of the entire community.
Services
I3P offers aspiring entrepreneurs and investors a series of services specifically

designed for their needs. For people with a business idea, I3P provides aspiring
entrepreneurs with a complete service package, from the identification of a
business model and the drawing up of a business plan, to advise and assist in
the first three years of the start-up. I3P acts as a partner supporting the
management team, with the aim of maximising business growth through tailored
services provided directly or through accredited partners.
Preincubation involves the guidance and support of a business tutor, backed by

a network of specialist consultants, for the development of technologically-
85
innovative business ideas. I3P provides aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills
and know-how to transform their business ideas first into business plans, and
then into active businesses with high-growth potential by providing them with a
business tutor and training. Preincubation’s objectives are:
 to select technologically-innovative business ideas with high potential for

success;
 to assess the economic validity and technical feasibility of business

ideas;
 to draw up a business plan outlining the actions, strategies and related

information to meet business growth objectives;
 to ensure a suitable business team is put together;
 to provide necessary business training.
Preincubation takes place before the actual start-up of the business and
generally lasts between 3 and 6 months, though being flexible, it may last
longer. The preincubation programme is designed and tailored by the tutor to
the skills and training needs of aspiring entrepreneurs. As a result,
preincubation lasts the time required to effectively research and draw up a valid
business plan. Tutoring is provided free of charge to aspiring entrepreneurs, as
the consultancy service currently falls within the scope of the MIP – Starting an
Own Business – Project of the Province of Turin. As a partner of the ATI
Business Group managing the project, I3P is one of the many MIP Offices
present on provincial territory.
The preincubation programme offers a broad range of benefits to the business

team, thanks to the dual role of educator (how to draw up a business plan) and
co-ordinator (calling in specialist consultants on request to lend a hand in
certain business planning stages) played by the business tutor. More
specifically, the business tutor: outlines a tailored preincubation programme
enabling aspiring entrepreneurs to learn skills and approach; offers
methodological support for business planning; provides links to experts and
specialist consultants, as well as other businesses; guarantees feedback and
analysis of results and problems encountered. In addition, I3P provides
86
business teams with furnished office space in which to hold meetings and see
their tutors.
The offered services are:
a) preliminary appraisal of ideas:
 preliminary meeting, involving an introduction to I3P and a presentation

of the business idea;
 analysis of the validity of the business idea, on the basis of two

parameters:
o technical parameters: the technological innovation content of the

idea and its feasibility;
o business parameters: the potential for business success and

growth.
b) Business training: a pivotal part of all preincubation stages, and aims to:
 draw out business aptitude and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to

become entrepreneurs;
 make the business team more familiar with key business concepts
and approaches;
 provide the skills and know-how needed to prepare a business plan,

such as: identifying the benefits of the good/service provided, in
relation to market needs and demand; assessing the potential market
for the good/service and the competition; planning operations and
financial aspects of the business.
Business ideas judged to have the greatest potential are given the opportunity
of being assigned to a team of students as part of the Entrepreneurship and
Business Planning Course run by the Politecnico di Torino.
c) Tutoring for the drawing up of a business plan: the business tutor assists the
business team in fine-tuning all the aspects of analysis that go into drawing up a
business plan. In particular, focus is placed on:
 analysing the general business context of reference;
87
 outlining the supply chain and identifying key player;
 analysing the competition and the market;
 outlining a marketing plan and the operating structure of the business;
 choosing a legal business form and governance structure;
 planning economic and financial aspects.
The business plan, together with an application form for entry into the
incubation programme, is then submitted for approval by the Appraisal
Committee. The Appraisal Committee consists of entrepreneurs, venture
capitalists, professors and economists, who assess the economic and technical
feasibility of the plan. Successful business plans are then earmarked for
incubation. At this stage, the business tutor helps the new entrepreneur fine-
tune practical aspects of the business, such as:
 finding sources of finance;
 appointing a full management team;
 finding solutions to any weakness highlighted by the Appraisal

Committee.
For people with an idea about new media, I3P provides aspiring entrepreneurs
with a business idea related to digital services (portals, e-commerce, social
networking sites, web applications and mobile, etc.) with a process of quick and
dynamic incubation designed to develop the service and launch it on the
market. With the TreataBit project, I3P provides the startupper with co-working
spaces and organizes training events and networking.
For Investors, I3P offers investors the opportunity to establish contacts with
innovative enterprises with high growth potential from the very start of their
business lives, supporting them both in initial contacts with the management
team and in the subsequent negotiations. I3P also offers a wide-ranging
portfolio of high-potential innovative businesses in which to invest. Specialist
services tailored specifically to investors include:
 orientation services: aimed at selecting the enterprises that best reflect

their investment needs;
88
 go-between services: aimed at facilitating the exchange of useful

information, while guaranteeing full confidentiality.
To guarantee the innovative nature and quality of its projects, I3P conducts
ongoing and effective initiatives aimed at drawing out new business ideas, in
particular from university research labs, research centres and more generally
from the local territory. More specifically, specialist I3P staff are involved in:
 monitoring research activities underway or brought to a close;
 identifying possible business applications for research findings (involving

an initial assessment of business potential and technical feasibility);
 matching researchers and aspiring entrepreneurs to a suitable business

tutor.
A series of services are made available to aspiring entrepreneurs to help turn

their business ideas into valid business plans. These include:
 industrial analysis;
 market research;
 creation of the business team.
Finally, I3P offers qualified managers and professionals the opportunity to work
with selected enterprises with high growth potential, assisting them in making
first contact and promoting the positive contribution of their work to the growth
potential of the business. For managers interested in working with young,
knowledge-based start-ups, I3P proposes a variety of different partnership
arrangements to enable experience and expertise acquired in other business
realities to be put to fruit.
I3P Statistics (2013)
 14 years of activity (since 1999)
 156 innovative start-ups supported
 84 start ups successfully out
 35 start ups currently hosted
89
 7 start ups that have been acquired
 30 start ups that closed their business
 14 business ideas in pre-incubazione
 over 1180* new job places created
 74* start ups patents
 54* M€ the total turnover of the start ups
 2,2* M€ the seed investments done during the year by VC or BA
 2052 business ideas evaluated
 625 business ideas coached to the business plans
 I3P managed 14 editions of the “Start Cup Torino Piemonte” and "Galileo
Ferraris" competition, the major business plan competition in Italy for
innovative projects;
 I3P manages the didactical activities for “Entrepreneurship and Business

Planning” courses at the Politecnico of Torino.
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Application of museum space within the university
Dorina Xheraj-Subashi. Center of Albanological Studies (Albania)
Abstract
Museum is perceived as an institution that is created for linking the past with the
present. Our imaginary sometimes claimed it as a place just to be visited at
least once in life. But, beside this old imaginary perception, must stand the
necessity for learning more and more not only from the past, but being able
understanding it and the different processes that the human been passes. Our
interests are also different from each other, but what is important is facility of
being able to learn fast and immediately about our interest. This paper will be
focused mostly in considering university space as the best place to engage
knowledge with experience. The university institution is the place where most of
students and not only, spend time during their academic experience. In order to
accomplish its mission as an educational institution, it has to improve the
students’ skill by offering another model, like learning by closely. The model of
learning by closely will be described as the new model of museum space inside
of university institution. This is a first attempt in changing idea where an
integrated museum inside the university could be the best place to improve
better the skills of students that learn in Heritage and Archaeological curricula,
but being able to serve to every other student of a university for gaining
knowledge, curiosities, education, satisfaction, and also being referenced point
to students community. Why a museum should be part of an institution as
university, and why is it necessary? We will try to analyse it, in different
direction, especially by using quantitative information from university students
and from theoretic perspective. The best practices will have also important
place in giving recommendations for new perspectives.
Keywords: Museum, museology, student, university, community
95
Introduction
The starting point in interesting museum curricula became more evident in

developing this initiative by lecturing Museology course, at Business Faculty in
Durres University “(http://www.uamd.edu.al/new/?cat=10)”, during the second
semester of 2013-2014 year. Even though museum research is important part
of my doctoral studies, have being part as museum lector and then lecturing it in
front of the students of Heritage Culture and Archaeological Tourism was a
challenge, in terms of facing different issues about Albanian museum aspects
and culture heritage, during the past century. This challenge was seen as a new
possibility to offer them new skills about museum studies and outreach new
methodologies in teaching and learning museology. Another point that pushes
on this idea includes some improving aspects related with the course itself. The
Faculty of Business is divided in some departments. Our course is part of
department of Tourism that includes Management of Cultural Tourism and
Archaeological Tourism “(http://www.uamd.edu.al/new/?p=580)”, fig.1
Figure 1. Faculty of Business Curricula, UAMD
96
Currently, this course is learned in the Third Year of studies, in the second
semester. In this point of view, students face for the first time the concepts of
Museology, and some of their perceptions were the following:
1. Firstly, studding Museology course is relatively unknown in heritage

management and archaeological tourism curricula,
2. Secondly, is perceived somehow emblematic in curricula studies,
3. Thirdly, students of this course, did not had any concept idea facing
museology,
4. Finally, they pressed the interest developing museum practice inside a

museum space if it would be created from their institution that will help to
enrich their experience of learning in different way.
The increase interest in implementing this initiative to create a museum space

inside of University of Durres, has been attempted even before, with the aim to
fulfil an important aspect of university structure, and also accomplishing what a
university has in confront as the educational mediator in the learning system. In
this context is reflected the idea where the museum space does not comprise
only the didactic frame but even other activities.
The origin of university museum
Since the 19th century the USA campuses begun to apply this initiative, where
every university of any size whether public or private, has a museum on
campus In the 19th century museums began to focus upon the interpretative
part of their mission: the creation and distribution of knowledge. Art museums
helped create knowledge by sponsoring archaeological expeditions that also
enriched their collections (King, 2001).
This early enterprise was practiced in United States, where campuses had the
potential to engage students in direct experiences of museum practices and in
critical thinking about museums (King& Marstine, 2006). In relation to Albanian
practices such initiatives were undertaken by the past governments before
1990, where a museum room was allocated inside the primary educational
institutions, from the 5th degree class, and served to the pupils for improving
97
learned skills by being surrounded with historical subjects or native town or

village objects (Adhami, 2001). Instead, the Museum of Nature Sciences has
served as subordinate from Faculty of Natural Sciences, which was
paraphrased as University Service Units in 1996 “(Wikipedia)”.
Interpreting this initiative?
The University has overcome the ideology and concept of staying by received
information only from the lecturers, whether possible starting from university
own curriculum. University museums can create the perfect situation in
generating new ideas about museum and confront these ideas for didactic
purposes (King& Marstine, 2006). The museums definition in Albanian museum
law “(http://albanianheritage.net/pdf/ligji2.pdf)” Art.3 point 1,is described as:
“Museum is the institution of memory storage, of events and written evidences
of human and material development of society, which undertakes research,
manages, preserves and exhibits properties, for research purposes, education
and entertainment, in service and open to the public”.
According the law, museum has provided anytime the predisposition of

education as an important point that serves to spread knowledge by gathering
around it students or pupils, and been used for different lectures or seminars for
students of different disciplines, but what we emphasize is that they have
always existed as separate entity from the academic environment, and not
integrated in the implementation of academic and students skills. We need to
understand that today universities comprise a great asset in human cultures,
which for their own ethnic representation represent simultaneously a great value
warehouse waiting to be processed and exploited in order levying a diversity of
typologies of different cultures and traditions. Another argument given with the
purpose of this initiative is the opportunity to meet what an institution has the
purpose and intent of its content, that can be qualified as better quality in terms
of student critical thinking and beyond, the variety of learning spaces, variety of
creative involvement not only the students and institutional staff but also
cooperation with others who may be student representatives to the visual arts
disciplines, and electronic Enginery, and potential researchers in disciplines yet
98
unstudied studies giving rise participation in projects related to heritage and

culture (Wittcomb,2006)
What can provide the museum space?
What can be implemented are reinforcement of new methodologies that can be

applied by students environment, but even the concept of learning from it and
with objects, or even the use of local materials (Hein, 2006), and the sequential
search for new elements to enrich themselves by their origin or ancestry. These
aspects naturally might be elaborated during years and enriched also with
information, details, and histories about the object origin like possible details to
enrich it. First this cultural space should be a focus point for every student. In
this direction it has to be considered as a unique place to be exploited by
students for the purpose of learning by closer and touching by themselves the
objects. If we take a look to some other museum universities as Cambridge
University, it has four university collections archives and exhibitions within the
University of Cambridge which are free and open to the public.
The University's collections are a world-class resource for researchers, students

and members of the public. http://www.cam.ac.uk/museums-and-
collections/visit-us), fig.2
Figure 2. Cambridge web page of Museum Collection
99
Instead University of Leipzing provides many collections, which are also used
for teaching and research, enabling students to handle the pieces as they learn
about them. The philosophy of university includes learning and researching
using actual objects from collections beside the other audiovisual methods and
teaching “(https://www.zv.uni-leipzig.de/en/university/faculties-and-central-
institutions/museen.html)”. Another European University Museum Collection is
Gipsoteca of Pisa. It has been crated since 1887 as “scientific cabinets” under
the Department of Archaeological Science and includes different collections to
improve student`s skills
“(http://www.plastercastcollection.org/en/database.php?d=lire&id=103%29)”
fig.3
Figure. 3 Web page, Gipsoteca of Pisa
From a theoretical standpoint, museology and information studies are mutually

beneficial for the students. In line with fundamental principles of information
studies, museums “deal” with the object itself, collections of objects and with all
the possible relations which the object entertains within a specific context
(Maroevic, 200),(Fitzgerald, 2009). According to Fitzgerald it is essential that we
reinvent our pedagogies and begin to view museum collections through this
lens. The experience of other international universities has shown that such
space would not be enough just to expose and enrich the academic experience
100
of students but at the same time will raise a new level of learning, strengthen
academic experience while simultaneously trained student.
Organization idea
Our main purpose by creating this museum space is providing unique

educational experiences that comprise the creation of object collection, a
laboratory that includes a digital archive and cultural data.
The university collection might start by gathering different local objects and
other objects that represent identity or history.
The laboratory might be divided with the collection of cultural data, that has the
ability to get rich over the years, and corrected by academic research papers or
even with regional studies of different researchers. Adding the own personal
experiences or ancestral memories to each object will enrich the documentation
with other usages. “Every object is in part a historic document. It contains
information about the materials from which it was made, the way in which it was
assembled, and every incident which occurred in its life.” (Fitzgerald, 2009)
The digital archive of text books, pictures, images, possessed from the students
will involve them more in this initiative, and will be helpful during their heritage
course to obtain a more complete identity in relation to their professional
curricula (Wittcomb, 2006). Preserving papers and collecting materials from
outside sources {is another way to enrich the digital museum archive} which
might relate to collection and programs (Fink, 2006).
By creating this laboratory “(http://www.imago.rimini.unibo.it)”, it would be in the

same time enriched by other faculty students and own staff every year, fig.4
101
Figure 4. Web page of Imago Online Rimini
As a cultural environment for students, lecturers, researchers or staff interested

in discovering everything possible, it might be considered as a "meeting with
diversity and curiosity". This database is another form of digital museum and
identity of representation, even for other institutions (Fink, 2006). According to
Wittcomb (2006), a good possibility of museum presentation is interaction, by:
 Adds of audiovisual tools
 Organization of exhibitions
 Additional tools which can be done, including physical activity.
The present and the future of the proposal university museum space
1. Implementation in different projects attached to the humanities,

archaeology, museology, culture heritage, tourism, and social
disciplines,
2. Initiate research papers to the controversial Rom culture, investigating

the depth of thoughts and diversity of their culture, and other minorities
cultures
102
3. By different surveys and other quantitative or qualitative data`s

generating research papers,
4. Make exhibitions,
5. Discuss thematic ideas,
6. Initiate innovation for exposure to new academic level browsing thoughts

by foreign literature,
7. Grading students based on ideas that reflect interaction with the

community
8. Invitation to historians, archaeologist, veterans to merge for such

initiative
9. Affiliation with other university museums.
All it would take labelling of gratitude of everyone who has invested and
involved in project implementation, in and workshops or seminars preparation or
student. The creation of a university collection and digital archive will serve for
university need, exhibition, workshop, training, and lessons. In addition this
archive can be developed in different typologies in order to be easily used, and
increased every day by students.
Conclusions
To realize this initiative, first step to move is the creation of the necessary
infrastructure in order to have the possibility of extending it further. King &
Marstine (2006) argues power of transmitting messages through the Cabinets of
Curiosity - created since the beginning of 1500 under which collection form
representing curiosity and wonder convey different names used by countries
(Minucciani 2012)-and reinstate their adoption to the university environment.
According to King & Marstine (2006) making a contemporary curiosity cabinet
students can better understand the production of knowledge and use of
authority at the university and the museum,-{furthermore}- students can critique
systems and advocate change (p.276). The benefits of this enterprise might
seem to be difficult at first sight, but it would create another atmosphere not only
for Durres University, but it would look forward to meet new synergies and
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collaboration with other museum universities, and would create new approach
in academic level. Only by starting this initiative it is possible generate academic
papers, create new links and discuss for new perspectives.
References
Adhami, S. (2001). Muzeologjia Shqiptare (p.261-262). Tirane: Gervis.
Fink. M. L. (2006). Museum archives as resources in New Museum Theory and

Practice. Janet Marstine, Blackwell Publishing.
Hein. E. G. (2006). Museum Education in Acompanion to Museum Studies.

Sharon Macdonald, Blackwell Publishing.
King, L. (2001). University museums in the 21st century opening address. In

Managing University Museums (pp.19-20). OECD.
King, L., & Marstine, J. (2006). The University Museum and Gallery: A Site for
Institutional Critique and a Focus of the Curriculum. In New Museum
Theory and Practice (pp. 267-276). Janet Marstine, Blackwell Publishing.
Maroevic, I. (2000). Museology as a Field of Knowledge. Cahiers d’étude.

ICOFOM Study. Series 8, Groeninghe. Belgium: ICOM.
Minucciani V. (2012). Pensare il museo- dai fondamenti teorici agli strumenti

tecnici. CET.
Witcomb, A. (2006). Interactivity: Thinking Beyong in Acompanion to Museum

Studies (p. 354). Sharon Macdonald, Blackwell Publishing.
Online references
Fitzgerald, B. (2009). On the Common-Wealth of Libraries, Archives and

Museums: Reinventing the Graduate Degree Program in Museology,
April, p.7. Retrieved from: http://ictop.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/05/museologythesis2-12586525577086-
phpapp02-Copy1.pdf
Gipsoteca of Pisa. Retrieved from:

http://www.plastercastcollection.org/en/database.php?d=lire&id=103)
104
Imago online Rimini, Laboratorio di storia sociale, memoria del quotidiano.

Retrieved from: http://www.imago.rimini.unibo.it
Law of Albanian museum. Law Nr. 9386, on 4.5.2005 “On Museum”. Retrieved
from: http://albanianheritage.net/pdf/ligji2.pdf
University of Cambrige. Retrieved from: http://www.cam.ac.uk/museums-and-

collections/visit-us
University of Durres, Tourism Curricula. Retrieved from:

http://www.uamd.edu.al/new/?p=580
University of Leipzing. Retrieved from: https://www.zv.uni-

leipzig.de/en/university/faculties-and-central-institutions/museen.html
105
Charter school performance and continuing education

challenges
Ledia Kashahu – Xhelilaj. University of Durres Aleksander Moisiu (Albania)
Jozef Bushati. University of Shkodra Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
Gezim Dibra. University of Shkodra Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
Mimoza Priku. University of Shkodra Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
Abstract
Recent reforms of pre-university education in Albania have put forward

challenges not only consecutive leadership of educational institutions of pre-
university education and their teaching staff but also academic staff in faculties
of education across the country. Charter school performance has grown
attention of directors of educational institutions to be careful practices with their
daily work to maintain labour standards in schools from all its personnel and, in
particular, has focused attention on standards of teachers as key factor in
achieving the desired performance of the school. Similarly, in faculties of
education across the country are shown special care for unbundling of school
performance indicators, so that through their curricula participants in the study
programs of first and second university level, to be as prepared theoretically to
demand questions of the time. The article addresses to the issue of teachers
continuing education for achieving and maintaining standards and teaching
performance for educational institution but also their leadership. The article
analysed the work of system maintenance through continuing education during
the past two decades. In this paper, emphasized the need for accurate scientific
studies to identify the needs of teachers and education leaders to continue not
only on the basis of their seniority in the job, but also based on objective
realities faced by teachers due to conditions in which they practice, taking into
account the location of the school zones and the characteristics of their
communities, to enable skills and work habits in accordance with these realities.
Also, an analysis of the changes made to required services, to be performed
today by schools as a comprehensive educational institution, based on current
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law of pre university education, so that these services to be real and not in the
context of efforts to realize these obligations, as a result of lack of skills and
abilities that they require. Furthermore, in this article was made an analysis of
study programs of second level, based on performance of needs schools and
improvement of university curricula of second level to respond to demands that
our educational reality poses no only for candidates for teachers but also for
teachers and leaders that currently exercise their profession but a the same
time attend to the second level of university of education.
Keywords: continuing education, identification of needs, standards of teachers,

teacher performance
Introduction
Albania is in the last hours of effort to supplant the much desired member states
of the European community. One of the major challenges that it tries to
overcome is the increased educational service offered to Albanian citizens in
the territory of the Republic of Albania. For this reason, in addition to earliest
and recent initiatives, concrete in major projects such as the "Quality and Equity
in Education" in the National Strategy for Development and Integration 2007-
2013, policymakers considered one of the strategic objectives, transparency to
the public for crosscutting taken policy and accountability for obtained results as
a consequence of the investment with public funds to increase the quality of life
of citizens and the achievements of the required governing standards.
In fulfilment of the goal, to improve the quality of education services in the EU

Countries, Education Ministers of these countries since 2007 year, during three
years organized meetings and committed to creating discussion roundtables.
During these meetings concluded that European policies, to reach a satisfactory
performance of schools must show care and attention first, for recruitment and
selection of teachers, second to the quality of initial teacher education, and
thirdly, systematically support teachers' professional development in a career
(the European Union in 2007, 2008, 2009)
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To enhance performance in the field of pre-university education are undertaken

a series of measures, expressed through concrete educational policies and
guidelines and initiatives to transform education as really a public good.
Specifically charter of school performance is a system designed for public
information and transparency that guarantees the quality of the school through
many indicators, providing clarity for all concerned, starting from parents and
students who receive educational services that are the same time the taxpayer,
but also teachers and heads of educational institutions and leaders of local and
central education level.
Charter school performance creates a new climate a culture of communication,

as a result of educational institutions liabilities reached the general public to
recognize and understand the evidences of achievements. In this way the
audience is clear and ready to respond to the invitation initiatives for
cooperation and joint decision-making on education, as is the recent initiative of
MAS “School, Community Centers”
Implementation of standards to have a satisfactory performance level is

dependent on the skills of teachers as the main actors of this new reality of
education, which defines the start of a special moment, where everyone has
identified his responsibilities, which will be measured, and moreover, will be
made public through an analysis based on concrete indication of measurable
and comparable. Schools have the opportunity to better understand their strong
and weaknesses points to build based on them, annual realistic and competitive
plans.
Although it is impossible to find a state statistic for the age of the teachers who
serve in our educational system, anyone who has a child in school or who has
an interest in school and pre-university education system is clear that the
majority of teachers in service belong to teachers generation, who graduated
before 1993, which means that they have not arrived to get into their university
programs, needed basis of abilities and professional skills to meet the demands
of today's education.
Specifically the teaching profession of teacher before 1993, has been a

profession that lacked standards and consequently there were many difficulties
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to make a precise description of the work to be performed from teacher. In

these conditions, even in universities that prepare teachers has been
uncertainty about the needs of a student who was preparing to become a
professional in this field. On the other hand radical curricular changes, the
democratization of the country is reflected in the curriculum through expressions
of new norms and civic values based on human rights, as well as
comprehensive education, was rapid changes requiring time and significant
investment on continuing education of teachers and their need not just for
maintenance at work, but to gain new skills and work that are not based in the
knowledge obtained in universities, but that teachers were recognized for the
first time.
Analysis of the training system during the past two decades
In a National Education Strategy for Pre-University Education (NESPUE) 2004-

2015 drafted in June 2004, expressed concern about how teacher training is
conducted: “Period from 10 to 12 years of Albanian transition is characterized
by the apparent lack of systematic and focused investments in teacher training
courses. Universities have been responsible for providing initial teacher training,
but in the past 5 years while their training is conducted in an uncoordinated
manner. Various international governmental agencies are occasionally involved
in implementing the training of teachers, mainly those of low cycle. But the lack
of a coherent overall approach has led to lowering of the quality of teachers and
increase the number of those unskilled in schools. "(NESPUE) p. 14)
The period referred to this strategy belongs to the years 1992-1999, years when
teacher training was mainly institutional and centralized. Teacher training
offered by the ISP (Institute of Pedagogical Studies), which then cooperate with
universities and district education departments to implement teacher training.
Teachers state their him interest only when approaching years of professional
experience as a teacher for taking part in the qualifying examinations 5, 10 and
20 years, which were associated with their financial reward where teachers
receive additional salary benefit by Category (IIIrd Category, + 5%, IInd
Category, +10% and Ist Category,+20%) (IPS, 1997). During these years was
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also shown a lack and fall of interest to work as a teacher because of the
difficult conditions in schools but also lower wages in education.
In 1993, with a special act of the Ministry of Education and Science, was
established network of senior trainers (IPS, 1997). This model was borrowed
from French practice, where defined person as senior trainer to be a consultant
for teachers and had a duty to recognize the experiences of teaching in a
particular group of schools, creating the opportunity for teachers to organize a
workshop, to present the good experience and tried to generalized it. Financial
difficulties due to the economic transition, to cope with state budget, this form of
supporting teachers in task, makes that this scheme, to stopped in 1999.
During the 2000 years until 2007, legislation responsible for the time, appointed
responsible teacher qualification- Regional Education Directorates (RED) and
Education Offices (EO), which in these conditions, organized work raising within
their qualification sections. In this way inspectors of REDs and EOs except
inspection role, took and trainer role for which in fact did not have prepare
properly.
The purpose of this way of organizing for teacher qualification was to

strengthen the Regional Education Departments and Offices of Education, but
due to their modest preparation and without clear structures and duties for
indeterminate liability of teacher qualifications but occasionally passed from
MES to IPS and from the IPS to REDs reflecting lack of vision and clear policies
for the development of well-defined human resources, sporadic qualifications,
with truly diverse topics, but in some cases repeated, coming as lack of
identification of the real needs of teachers.
In these conditions IPSs play the role of consultant and coordinator between the
Regional Directorate of Education and the Directorate of Human Resources at
MES from which, each year made available training programs designed by her.
This way of achieving qualifications resulted unproductive because in qualifying
processes have participated a small number of teachers, but rather being
organized in this way, in any of the institutions are not available documentation
that can prove the results of this qualification work. This situation of no
standardized training go parallel with a similar situation in universities where
110
prepare teachers, where standards are lacking also, without they, students who
completed a cycle of studies were not to meet in terms of professional training.
If we will analysis of university programs of its time, there do not include terms
of skills but they are entirely oriented only by content.
During the period 2007-2010, qualification of teachers on national level was

mainly driven by the Institute of Curricula and Training (ICT), and also by the
Regional Education Directorate and Education Offices, which were the
responsible bodies for the management of teacher qualification activities at the
regional and district level. During these years ICT invested in creating a network
of senior trainers to support training policies at local level, continuing training
system in cascade manner.
This activity of ICT was coordinated with a significant number of NGOs which
deal, have agreement with ICT have realized creation of new training
capacities. Mainly training programs initiated from ICT in response of decisions
and instructions that went out from MES as a continuation of reformations
educational of policies in curriculum and teaching. One of the educational
policies undertaken at this time was the inclusion in education, the breakdown
of which also committed not less Albanian and foreign NGOs. This period
belong several cascade training organized nationally by ICT in environment of
ICT for guidance as:
 Guidelines for student achievement goals;
 Guidelines for annual school plan;
 Guidelines for use of free hours;
 Guidelines school board;
 Guidelines for creating curricular projects etc..
Participants in these activities continued to conduct training in their districts.
Also, ICT specialists worked with curriculum-based in areas of learning in order

to enable a gradual transition from the traditional type of teaching with the
teacher at the center, the type of interactive teaching with students at the
center. Qualifying event of this period is characterized by the inability of direct
training, qualification of a few number of teachers, sporadic training, and
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providing training unrelated to the dynamics of the practical application of new

policies and guidelines, which they need to treated specifically. Also during this
period, on 29.07.2008 Instruction Nr.30 issued from MES "On the organization
of higher education studies for professional formation of teachers", aimed at
restructuring the faculties of education in fulfilment of professional standards
and the unification of programs of education faculties nationwide. Citing the fact
that in these times for standards of the teacher profession, but also after for the
design of teaching programs, academic staff of universities were based on a
draft drawn up by ICT and after by IED for the reason that these standards
were adopted later on Instruction No. 5 dated 02.25.2013.
Based Instruction Nr. 30 of above mention, at all of the education faculties,

academic staff were dedicated to revamp undergraduate programs based on
standards, curriculum dimensioning deciding reports balanced between general
training and special, concrete profile of the teachers that connects the, as well
as incorporation of pedagogical practice as an important component in shaping
future teachers and as an organic part of this formation. This structure created
through years an clear links of regional universities with schools, where schools
are becoming discussions centers and various reflections on curricula and
initiatives recently initiated by MES. Really from the 1990s years until now, in
our country are using three forms of qualifications, namely:
 institutional training at central and local levels;
 qualification based on support from the Albanian or foreign NGOs

interested in education;
 individual training.
Each of these forms of training had its shortcomings. If we refer to the first form
of institutional training, it took place in the absence of standards for teachers
and therefore can not focus on the needs of teachers, but to the teacher
himself, who was the subject of training without a specific subject.
Mostly these trainings until 2005, when the funds of the World Bank was
created Center for Education Training and Qualification (CETQ), not based on
supply-demand principle because not only lacked standards for teachers,
training modules, but lacked emphasize the assessment of achievement. Even
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after years 2007, when was created the first drafts of standards for teachers
and directors, as well as were clarified evaluation forms of student achievement
through work of AEA (AVA) specialists, institutional type of qualifications were
without base on the requirements and needs of teacher, but simply in response
to new educational policies and constant guidelines diffraction issued by MES.
And two other forms of qualifications had serious deficiencies. In terms of

qualifications, supported by NGOs they were characterized by a lack of
institutional strategies, where teachers used the opportunity that was given to
training regardless of whether the training was matched to their specific need.
While in terms of individual training, due to the absence of a scheme to award
credits system certified, and the lack of an employment incentive scheme based
on the merits, did not constitute interest for the teacher.
In June of 2004 with the announcement of new strategies for the pre-university
education from 2004 - 2015 jumped for the first time the idea of paying teachers
on the basis of his merit, but all this only expressed in a few lines of this
document not seen a direct realization form of this new way of teacher
evaluation. Actually so far not been applied yet paying teachers on the basis of
merit.
Increasing the quality of the teaching profession as the main actor of

school performance
To set up the teaching profession at the right height level, and that this
profession to guarantee the required quality for citizens was proposed to the
Assembly of the Republic of Albania that profession of teacher to be
considered of particular importance of the interests for its citizens and ranked in
the list of regulated professions. So on date 12.16.2012 with Law No. 10 357 for
an addition to the Law No. 10 171 dated 22.10.2009 for regulated professions in
the Republic of Albania, the Assembly of the Republic of Albania decided,
based on Article 1 of this law to the profession of teacher be added to the list of
regulated professions, in Article 5, point 1, with the letter g.
This forward important step to guarantee the quality of education service was
followed by a series of laws and other decisions that to turn and to set the law
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into a reality. Specifically Ministerial Order No..134/135/136 dated 21/03/2011

of the Minister of Education and Science formalized adoption of state standards
for quality of first-level studies (Bachelor) and second level (Masters) and third
level as doctoral studies (PhD). Meanwhile previously has been prepared by the
Directorate of Human Resources of MES and IDE. Program of professional
practises for regulated profession of teacher, promulgated by dated 23.01.2011.
While on the date 14.07.2011, the Ministerial Order No. 336. "On regulation for
the organization and development of professional practices for the teachers
regulated profession" defines the rules and organization of practices. Also, and
Ministerial Order No. 82 dated 22.02.2011. Regulation for the organization of
the state exams for regulated professions in the Republic of Albania explained
to all the teachers candidates and other interested groups for this purpose, that
rules that are to be followed and the organization of the state exam, to get his
license to practice the profession of teachers.
The legal basis and qualification of teachers and directors
Starting from the problems and the lack of efficiency of training systems
analysed above, specialists in the field of education sought new ways to realize
the qualifications of teachers, studying European models of qualifications. So it
was decided that the training of teachers as well as leaders of educational
institutions, to run by independent professional agency training and to be
oriented by supply-demand. For this purpose dated 09.03.2011. MES issue
regulations for the accreditation of system of training which specifies:
a) treatment agencies;
b) forms of training;
c) how to fund training programs; and
d) the establishment of the training committee (TAC),
its composition and functions of the committee, replacing members, obligations,

decisions and appeals.
To orient all interested agencies for participation in the submission of the

necessary documentation for training programs with aimed their accreditations,
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Directorat of Pre-University Education and IED dated 14.10.2011 published in

the training needs of teachers and undergraduate education leaders for 2011-
2013, which identified them by taking the opinion of many actors contributing to
undergraduate education as MES specialists, IED, National Agency of
Education and Vocational Training Agency Qualifications, National Inspectorate
of Pre-university Education, and RED / EO. There appears a list of the needs
for teachers and leaders, grouped in sections.
On date 25.12.2011 the Commission of Accreditation of Training Programs

(TAC), established by order of the Minister of Education and Science, pursuant
to Regulation System Accreditation of Training Programs, notify all interested
agencies that begins training period the application for accredited programs /
training modules according to the list of training programs to employees of
education (at IED). Based on the list of needs of all interested agencies
developed a wide range of training modules in response to the call of MES.
Several months later MES presents for all concerned database with the names
of agencies, training modules where each module has its specific number and
their respective credit. Teachers are free to choose training courses according
to their needs. According to Law Nr. 69/2012 for Pre-university education
system in the Republic of Albania, Article 58 stipulates that, how to be done
professional development of teachers and leaders, setting the forms and
manner of training, the amount of time required (at least three days per year)
and the ways of their funding. In article 56 of this law is point 2:
c) The teacher has the right: to create opportunities for professional

development and point 3. Teacher is required:
d) to update professional competencies.
These rights and legal obligations associated with teachers meeting the
standard 2 teacher who in his description specifies: The teacher is a reflective
practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of choices of actions that take
and which constantly requires space for his professional growth. In one of the
four competencies is: the teacher needs to update his knowledge. One of three
teacher demonstrations expected, in efforts to meet this standard is: seek and
115
use professional literature and other resources to support their professional

development as students, as teachers.
In addition to Instruction Nr. 2, dated 05.02.2014 "On the criteria and

procedures for teacher training" in Section 1, where the qualification criteria set
out in paragraph 3 states: Starting from 2014 onwards, have the right to apply
for the qualification category, teachers who have completed at least 3 days of
training per year with (on day is 8 hours development professional training, of
which 2 hours are training sessions, while other classes are individual or group
work for preparation of thematic tasks, case studies, projects, essays, etc..
Three training days per calendar year, are equivalent to one (1) credit.
To realize his qualifications teachers must meet the above criteria provided in
article 58, paragraph 3 of Law Nr. 69/2012 for pre-university education system
in Republic of Albania. So the otherwise said: teacher participating in the
qualification process through teacher training is a professional responsibility
and a legal obligation.
On the other side Article 59 of Law Nr. 69/2012, in his point 1 decide point
levels of qualification of teachers, and specifically: teacher training is divided
into three categories:
a) "Qualified Teacher";
b) "Teacher Specialist";
c) "Master Teacher".
In paragraph 2 of Article 59 stipulates that how to be done increase in class and

financial benefits of teacher from her: "Growth in the category of teachers is
done through experience, training and after having successfully passed the
exam respective final qualifying category." While in paragraph 3 of this article
clarify that each category is associated with an additional qualification in salary
...
Regarding educational institution leaders, he / she faces with more legal

obligations and responsibilities in effort to realize the performance as leaders
through compliance with the standards in leadership terms. So if we refer f.e
field of 2nd evaluation of directors: Leadership of teaching and learning, in
116
personal qualities and values of the leader of an educational institution has an

obligation to engage and ensure the establishment of standards for everyone,
with a view achieving at the maximum level. Likewise, in the field of 3rd of
evaluation: Personal development and interaction with other actors, the director
encourages, engages and provides ongoing professional development for self
and other stakeholders within the school, in addition to other forms of
engagement through work.
Furthermore to be appointed as head of the educational institution the

candidate must possess at least category "Qualified Teacher" regardless if
appointed at the head of a public or non-public institution and it is provided for
in Article 53 point 2 59 of Law Nr. 69/2012. Also, in Article 54, point 2 / b makes
it responsible for improving the quality of educational service, its leader. This is
supported and by Article 58 of the Normative Provisions to the point 1 where
determines responsibility of the directors, the for the design and implementation
of a professional interior plan of the institution, (which moreover must be
preserved as part of the education records for 4 years on), and facilitating
training for teachers at least 3 days per year. In point 2 of this article is provided
as a obligation of directors for promotion and control the of teachers in
professional networks.
Achieving the standards of teachers and leaders through continuing

education
Standards of teachers and leaders and why are published by IED since 2010 in
draft form, are approved only a little more than a year ago on 2/25/2013 with the
Instruction Nr.5 of MES. Since the first moment of their publication, as teachers
and directors began to focus on them to better understand first, describing their
work and secondly, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their practices
in order for improving the latter. A large part of school directors began to
analyse the observed classes by them and during by deputy directors to better
understand the needs of teachers of the institution that they ran in order to
compile and concrete training, not only internal training level with highly
professional, but also efficient. However, it must be admitted that this course of
117
action has occurred mainly in the educational institutions of the capital city and
major cities, and because of objective difficulties, less in small towns institutions
or those in rural areas, where the priority are different for schools from urban
areas.
As mentioned earlier in this article, although have not official statistics, the
public perception of a considerable part of them belong to the generation of
graduate teachers before 1993, when faculties of education across the country
can unable to meet the full scope of professional preparation as the change of
political system in Albania brought innumerable changes in the education
system and consequently the competencies that a teacher should possess.
This generation of teachers during educational experiences faced with many
challenges and difficulties, which as mentioned in the analysis of the training
system for two decades could not properly support with proper continuing
education. In these conditions there are many students today that although
audiences have not a legal obligation not to pursue the second level of study,
because they do not feel fulfilled by professional standpoint, are in pursuit of
these programs. Standardization of the teaching profession is one more reason.
Listing of the priority areas for training of teachers for the years 1011-13 by the
Directorate of Pre-University Education and IED, has oriented to some extent
teachers, to easily find matches between their needs and the training modules
offered by the training agencies certified by KAT, but our daily practices as
senior trainers, we note that there is still uncertainty about what the teacher is of
utmost priority to improve professionally. This we believe that comes from the
lack of full recognition of standards for teachers in general and their specific
profile, but also in many cases not enough work of their heads of institutions
who lack capacity to professional needed streamlining their subordinates, even
though this is a commitment required by law.
Successive reforms of the past decade have faced teachers with continuing
challenges in the field of teaching methodologies, moving from one form of
teaching, from traditional models to interactive learning, to increase student
participation in learning, also to enhance the pleasure and responsibility in this
process. Learning on the basis of objectives also needed support and concrete
models as well as teaching with projects. Equally important are the challengers
118
and the changes that occurred in the area of curriculum, which has changed not
only the content but also the structure in its assessment methods. Freedom of
the teacher to use the free hours with proper efficiency, there was much
discussion in teachers' professional networks. On the other hand the demand
for lead school on the basis of clear medium-term plans and annual mobilized
not only the leaders but also the rest of the teaching staff.
Initiative taken years ago for comprehensive schools increased demand for
teachers to recognize knowledge for disability and their treatment with individual
plans as well as the deepening of teachers on the fundamental human rights
and in particular of the children. Management leadership practices with school
boards and parents with numerous new initiatives in progress as f.e School as
Community Center (SCC) increased accountability of teachers and directors to
respond professionally and effectively, in terms of performance when schools
cards will provide transparency to the public, for the work that have to do every
educational institution. All these changes have need to support the continued
education for teachers as well as for directors, after the latter's role that has
changed completely in the last decade.
Changing of the scheme of training and identification of needs
It is clear that the shape of the maintenance of work for teachers recently taken
measures to improve the quality of the education system has changed not only
in terms of decentralization but also the opportunity to provide better services
and supply-oriented demand. Current laws and guidelines provide three forms
of training:
a) qualified institutional;
b) qualification based on support from the Albanian or foreign NGOs

interested in education; and
c) individual qualification,
but what is different now is to define the obligation of teachers in service, to

take part in professional training as well as coverage of these expenses by the
teachers themselves.
119
According to analysis that was done not only through review of documentation
but also contact with the specialists of IED, RED but also with teachers and
directors show that identification of the list of needs that announced by the
Directorate of Pre-University Education and IED, for priority training needs of
future realized mainly through the analysis and study and the results achieved
by teachers in examinations for the qualification of the three stages. Analysis of
these indicators is very important, it is necessary but not sufficient to develop a
priority list of needs for training.
 First, in qualification exams provided general questions and not with

specific nature of the daily practice of teachers, which can meet up at a
certain point identifying the level of knowledge of teachers and their
professional response.
 Secondly, written tests (as well as is testing to gain the level of

qualification) has its limitations and can not measure teacher's ability to
respond to the special needs of a disabled child or the ability of teachers
to communicate effectively with different types of families.
 Thirdly, in qualification exams for teachers enter up to 20 years of work.

Current law provides for retirement of teachers respectively 60 years for
women and 65 for men, while with the government's proposals to end the
social security system of retirement, age will change.
Not only working years in progressively, increasing the retirement age of

pension for women and men, but will also increase their contribution from 35 to
40 years of work. Under these conditions, the study estimates through
qualification exams, gained professional status information for only a fraction of
teachers, ie those up to 20 years of work, but the rest is missing. Another
method of data collection for this purpose until last year has been through a
requirement that school directors were made to identify the training needs of
teachers in August, while many charge as well as for teachers and directors for
more time during the day. Another aspect that has damaged the collection
process of needs is the fact that this year director was under pressure from the
movements of positions in education due to government changes, had not even
proper composure and commitment to duty.
120
We believe that the identification of needs is a crucial step for ensuring the
appropriate training modules therefore suggested a national survey for this
purpose in order to be considered the needs of all groups of teachers, here
have in mind not only grouping for reason of the age, but the area where
teachers serve because different areas have different dynamics. These is not
only the question of separation of urban and rural area as well as special
features either for urban and rural areas that are dependent on population
density, distance from city centers, special features climatic and environmental
conditions, their communities and etc.
Specifically in Albania have been significant demographic shift, especially in

cities in the northeast, but also in villages nationwide. Consequently due to the
failure of the number of students, learning becomes in collective classes. Of
course, these teachers need special training packages due to the conditions in
which teaching practice. Having these emergencies, agencies will need to
design training modules in accordance with the specific skills required by
teachers in order that during training days for teachers are not simply
performing a duty required by law, to pose significant increase skills and habits,
to cope with the changes that request time.
The university curricula of the second level and charter school

performance
One of European policies related with education is included in the continuing

education of persons 25- 64 years in extent with 15%. This is an objective to be
realized by the governments of EU member states by 20201. In the context of
the European integration of Albania, MAS is following supportive policies for
adults who wish to continue their studies not only at the first level of study (BA
programs) but also on the second level (MNP, MND) and third (Dr.) and
especially when these requirements are related to the continuing education of
teachers. Based on the objectives set in 2001 in all EU countries by 20102 was
1
European Commision. Action plan on adult learning: Achievments and results 2008-2010,
Commision Staff Working Paper, Brussels: European Commission. 2011.
http://eurlex. europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex/OJ:C:2008:EN:PDF
2
Këshilli i Bashkimit Evropian , Bruksel, shkurt 2001: Objektivat konkrete për të ardhmen e
sistemeve të arsimit dhe të trajnimit, www.europa.eu.in
121
reached three strategic goals in relation to education and training of teachers

and in particular:
 improving the quality and effectiveness of the education system and

teacher training ;
 easier access to education and training; and
 open system of education and training to labour market (Piesanen, &

Välijärvi, 2010)
In faculties of education across the country this academic year was elaborated
in response to the demands raised by MAS that university programs as the first
level and the second level to endowed with definitions of knowledge and
competencies that students benefit in the study of these programs. The basis of
these definitions were general standards for teachers and leaders as well as
specific teaching standards related their profiles. In one of the main EU
documents to support teachers' professional becomes more obvious that can
be achieved unification of teaching quality in all EU countries, it is needed to
unify standards for teachers which would make clear to all what to know, but
also make teachers and are these standards that will serve as a basis to
determine the initial programs of teacher education, establishing criteria for
getting them to work, needs assessment to continue their training (European
Commission, 2012).
To achieve that in the near future as soon as possible, based on the

performance of charter schools to enhance the quality of educational services
throughout the country, in this article we are bringing the experience of two of
the education faculties of the two universities, the University of Durres
”Aleksander Moisiu” and University of Shkodra “Luigj Gurakuqi”. Department of
Pedagogy of the University of Durres this academic year was worked to
determine the knowledge and competence of the teaching programs of the first
and second level. For this reason, it was considered in addition to general
standards for teachers and according to the profile, all programs of courses
carefully studying the contents of the planned compliance with the objectives of
courses and the results achieved, in terms of competencies acquired as a result
of the work in auditors and individual.
122
Was took on the row programs that teachers perfect as Didactic MA, Msc CU3,
and for leadership Msc MSIA4. Programs of second level in this faculty, not only
pursued by students who complete the first level of ongoing studies within the
framework of the Bologna system, but these programs follow a significant
number of teachers on the practise, teachers who aspire taking director
positions, or even directors of educational institutions, which raises in turn even
more academic responsibility to respond to this assessment and belief shown
by this category of students.
The same procedure was followed by the departments of the Albanian

language, English language, Literature, Sociology, and Psychology. In all
programs after being clarified knowledge and competencies for relevant
courses, professors were involved in professional discussions to update the
professional literature in accordance with the laws and guidelines of the new
initiatives of MAS. At the end of this work, it was concluded that they need to be
given special attention to courses related to the seven areas of school
evaluation as:
 Curriculum Development,
 Teaching Methodologies,
 Assessment in Education
 The School and the Community",
 Special Education",
 Management of Educational institutions", and
 Research in Education".
In the performance of charter school teachers is foreseen that within schools,

teachers and leaders to be able to implement multiple measures for internal
evaluation which means that in these conditions the preparation of teaching
staff with the skills and work habits for research in education, is a necessary
condition for the realization of increasing the quality of education.
3
Cikli i Ulët
4
Menaxhim dhe Supervizim i Institucioneve Arsimore
123
Conclusions
Maintenance and updating with new literature and adaption with changes in
time brings programs at all levels, that is a clear obligation for all academic staff
in all institutions of higher education, but for faculties education this
responsibility is even greater. The education of future teachers is an investment
with exceptional value for a nation as if the future teachers will be able to
possess the competencies associated with their job descriptions approved
standards, this would be an important step to increase achievement level of
students across the country as they will be able to discover new ways, to
achieve high results in services that will provide. Also, ensuring a high quality of
preparation of new teachers in their initial education is a good base and
confident that they will continue to expand the knowledge and competencies
during their career. This is the only way that will advance the development of
our country.
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Council on the concrete future objectives of education and training systems.
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arsimit parashkollor cikli i ulët. Tiranë.
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20per%20arsimin%20gjitheperfshires%202004-2015.pdf
127
Starting Lifelong Learning Activities: A New Experience on

Developing the Third Mission in Vlora University to support
Community Needs
Eva Cipi. University Ismail Qemali of Vlora (Albania)
Evelina Bazini. University Ismail Qemali of Vlora (Albania)
Abstract
This work aims to bring a new experience on establishing a basic structure to

develop several activities of lifelong learning mission in the Vlora University. We
have called this structure Regional Development Centre according the
university objectives to become a main actor in the regional development in
several areas. Creating this Centre is considered a great opportunity in the
region to support the human resource requirements of economy, society and
community in general.
As initial phase, the method is based on analysing the real demands of the
region. This analysis shows the real needs on third mission activities combining
with the opportunities offered by the university to support strategically its
important role in the region. The material we have gathered is based on
interviews and questionnaires with local actors of economy and society that
reflect their suggestions on the issue mentioned. Surveys to graduates,
employers and other possible clients have been used where the information
about these surveys has included. Our research has been focused in some
dimensions including continuous education and social engagement. According
a detailed SWOT analysis, we have organized the plan of activities in order to
achieve the final objective. We have discovered the potential human and
physical resources of the university that can be used as a great support on
developing training activities. As result, we have developed a business plan
consider objectives, methodology, needs of support structures and needs of
resources (financial, human and others).
128
Through the Regional Development Centre of Vlora University study case we

bring an example how the university can create bridges between the theoretical
knowledge and practical skills as a benefit of collaboration.
Keywords: lifelong learning, third mission, regional development centre
Introduction
Regional Development Centre according of its goal to become a main actor in

the regional development in several areas. Creating this Centre is considered
as a great opportunity in the region to support the human resource
requirements of economy, society and community in general. As initial phase,
the method is based on analysing the real demands of the region. This analysis
shows the real needs on third mission activities combining with the opportunities
offered by the university to support strategically its important role in the region.
The material we have gathered is based on interviews and questionnaires with
local actors of economy and society that reflect their suggestions on the issue
mentioned. Surveys to graduates, employers and other possible clients have
been used where the information about these surveys has included:
population/sample (response rate), mode for posing questions and collecting
responses (on-line, personal, etc.), surveying period, mode of analysing the
information. Our research has been focused in three dimensions including
transfer technologies, continuous education and social engagement. For each
of them, we have specified a detailed SWOT analysis that helps to organize the
plan of activities in order to achieve the final objective. We have discovered the
potential human and physical resources of the university that can be used as a
great support on third mission of a higher education institution. As result, we
have developed a business plan consider objectives, methodology, needs of
support structures and needs of resources (financial, human and others).
Through the Regional Development Centre of Vlora University study case we

bring an example how the university can create bridges between the theoretical
knowledge and practical skills as a benefit of collaboration.
129
The new strategy for HEIs
The Strategy for Higher Education identified strategic initiatives which the
Government will pursue/ The first is for regional universities to develop
themselves as Regional Development Centers with the intention that their
teaching, research and development activities would be more oriented to active
engagement with their local communities, local companies and other bodies.
Each regional university should undertake applied research and Development
for local businesses as well as focusing their teaching activities on local needs.
It is expected that regional HEIs should be in the forefront of the development of
two year postsecondary programs and be the main providers of their diplomas.
The orientation of regional HEIs towards vocational education training will
strengthen their contribution to the social and economic development of the
respective region. The strategy aims to encourage these HEIs to develop more
as "Regional Development Centers", with strong connections to the local
community and special attention to the needs of this community. Undertaking
such a role by regional HEIs will strengthen their identity; they will be much
more specific and much more recognized than they currently are.
The role of HEIs to help the economic and social development implies that,
apart from better focused teaching, they will also offer consultancy, applied
scientific research and other services, thus also producing extra revenues for
the HEI. The potential customers of these services will be the local communities
and businesses, the local and central government bodies, and different donor
organizations; all of these, especially the Ministries and donors, will be
encouraged to use services offered by HEIs.
The concept: The third mission of HEIs
Universities have three missions: Teaching, Research, and what we have called
Communities Engagement’. We have used Communities to stress the various
communities involved: not only business, but all communities - eg. artistic,
religious, educational, sporting, charitable, indigenous, professional
associations, local councils, families, etc. The starting point is the assimilation of
fundamental research to codified knowledge and thus to information. This
130
economic assimilation is critical since it tells that this good, once produced, is
very difficult to appropriate. The term “third mission” has attracted the attention
of many researchers: One of these opinions considers the third mission as the
relationship between higher education and society beyond the first (education)
and second (research) missions of universities. Another definition of third
mission typically considers it as a set of functions that are held to be distinct
from the teaching and research roles of high education higher education. The
third mission encompasses a wide range of activities involving the generation,
use, application and exploitation of knowledge and other university capabilities
outside academic environments.
In general, the concept of the third mission encapsulates many of the rising
demands on the university to take a more visible role in stimulating and guiding
the utilization of knowledge for social, cultural and economic development. In
the context of a Network of regional developing centers project, the university of
Vlora was going to develop a new strategy in order to have new position in
social and economic framework of the region. Apart from the two classic
missions of universities teaching and research, this project distinguished a third
mission, encompassing the university’s relationships with the non-academic
outside world: industry, public authorities and society.
Regional Development Center in Vlora university
It is a new structure of the university and its main objective is to support the
modernization of university bringing a new structure that will implement the
triangle knowledge – research- innovation meanwhile taking into account that
the higher education system operates efficiently if it is based on different
realities and at the same time on the actual traditions of the communities of the
region. Some similarities can be found between different programmes in the
higher education systems, but our objective is to discover that and to implement
study programmes with own features and ambitions in order to be effective for
the community. The University is not only the place of knowledge production,
but it has to acquire the definition that the economy and society would be the
users of this knowledge. The University in general is therefore seen as playing
131
an essential role in strengthening the economic competitiveness of the Vlora

region. It is therefore important to promote the enhanced knowledge transfer
continuously in years to the business world and society at large.
If the investments in higher education are made in the right and structured way,
we can see also a lasting positive effect on the education and on the
employability of the population of the region. Besides the development of
human resources, a good education at the university programmes, updating old
competencies and acquiring new skills, the results will be clear in an increased
interest in investments by local as well as national companies and thus
contributes to the securing and the development of economy and society.
The social and economic situation of Vlora region
The County of Vlora is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the

districts Delvine, Sarande and Vlora and its capital is Vlora. As of January 1,
2010 the population of the Vlore District was estimated to be 211,773. The
County forms the integral part of the Albanian Riviera.
Economy
The city of Vlora remains a major seaport and commercial centre, with a
significant fishing and industrial sector. Industrial activity in several directions
needs new skills in the field of administration, management and finance. Nearly
all are involved in such processes, therefore the university brings research
programs in these special short courses. Tourism has become a major industry
in recent years, with many hotels, recreational centers, and beautiful beaches.
There are no specialized people or centers that would be able to support the
needs for organized and completed activity in order to start and to promote a
new strategy in tourism sector, including accommodation, transportation,
cultural properties or cultural monuments, events, etc. Services sector is very
powerful in the region's lifestyle. Actually, analysing deeper the causes of
failures, lower level of performance and services in several sector of economy
and education, we list some requirements in order to overcome the bad
situation, to be concrete and useful and to gain an important role as the
132
intermediate institution that can create, manage, develop and validate human
resources:
 New processes require young specialists who are capable for continuous
self-assessment to be able to face the changes of development in the
sectors where they work.
 The rapid development in terms of improvement and modernization are

associated with the introduction of new technologies and information
processing. To use and to maintain them, this requires permanent
expertise.
 In addition to face the challenges of development, such institutions are

looking for personnel in the sectors of management, organization,
marketing and promotion with a contemporary vision.
Private services sector such as bars, shops, beauty centers, etc. is developed
much more than other sectors but it is obvious the necessity of improving the
capacity and service quality. The university can fill this gap with short
professional programs of great interest for the community.
Education is a very important sector, also priority for the entire community. In
the pre-university institutions, we emphasize the role of standards on teaching
methods used by teachers and a new philosophy on education. As immediate
requirements we list:
 New European methodology on teaching and learning
 Using information and communication technology in the education

process
 Interactive Communication between teacher and student and between

teacher and teacher
 New Philosophy on teaching for young citizens based on UNESCO

directives.
 New style of organization and management in curricula and schools
133
Society
The population is mainly concentrated in the city. Main characteristic are the
hospitality and friendship. People have a creative and artistic spirit. They want
to learn and invest a lot in education and science. In addition, sport and arts are
two important other areas of interest for the city. The university may organize
various events having its theatre and sports club to revitalize the city's life.
Organizing competitions for the identification of values in different fields has lost
its role in the students’ life. That means the university can bring some changes
for students and the community. Actually, there are some important needs:
 Employment in sector of economy and industry
 Education in schools
 Entertainment and other activities
 Research and innovation
The university has a visibly strong role in educating the citizens, which can be
felt especially among the third year students. We note with satisfaction the
change in the formation of a citizen, and look for that this can be passed on to
influence other groups who have had previous experience in our classrooms.
Developing third mission in Vlora University-Project Objectives
The main objective of the project is to develop a new structure called Regional
Development Center in order to support the partnership of the university with
other institutions in providing and developing necessary instruments and
methodologies to strengthen knowledge transfer by different activities. The
center will provide a new organizational concept for the communication and
coordination of graduates or non graduates that want to enter into the labour
market. The center will facilitate this process through individual career
counselling offers and enhanced partnerships with enterprises. Furthermore,
based on these partnerships as institutionalized system, the center will set up
and coordinate alumni activities leading to much closer relationships between
the university and their alumni.
The project aims to achieve some specific objectives like:
134
1. Ensuring LLL and on the job training for academics and the community at
large.
2. Enhancing the employability of university graduates;
3. Fostering transfer and multiplication of academic knowledge to society;
4. Setting up a continuous learning and quality improvement system for the

university.
In order to realize these specific objectives, the necessary structures and

capacities are identified and developed through a self-assessment analysis and
knowledge transfer in Vlora Region.
According to these results, RDC is established in order to cover the three areas
of Lifelong Learning:
 career services and employability,
 alumni activities in research and
 innovation
Project Methodology
 Analysis of higher education and society cooperation. In a self-

assessment process the university analyses the current situation of links
between higher education and local society, while the university collects
good practice examples at their home institutions.
 Establishment of a Center as an instrument for implementing LLL

programmes, career services and alumni activities. One of the core
activities is the setting up of short programmes and the definition of their
objectives and instruments to achieve them. This is done by activity
planning, financial forecasting, knowledge transfer through participation
in meetings organized with groups of interest, and regular reporting
about of the results.
 Pilot projects in small groups of research. At each research group, three

pilot projects will be implemented, each one dealing with one of the three
main topics – LLL programme, career counselling and alumni support.
135
The pilot projects aim to establish and strengthen the collaboration with
external partners and create a network with public or non-public
institutions, economy and society.
 Promotion of project results. We will promote the project through printed

and electronic promotion materials, websites, events, open days,
networking activities and conferences to ensure raising awareness and
optimal acceptance and usage of project products by academic and
professional community, by students and the society in general.
Developing links with the local economy
The higher education plays a significant role in regional economy. We suggest

that it is very important to develop projects which will be enhanced by university
of Vlora with a big impact for the economy of the region. For strengthening the
links between university structures and institutions, we work in these areas:
1. Education, Research and Development
2. Development of Applied Study Programmes
3. Development of a human resources database
Education, Research and Development
We are working to create specialized centers that can develop:
a. New Strategies that involves activities of an accurate analysis of the

present situation and planning of strategies for further action evaluating
the capacities of university.
b. New services and instruments. For each particular need, these mini
centers to address and identify the right solutions creating specialized
standard of services that guarantee the success of central role of
university in economy of region and in the other part the success of these
centers for development and research.
136
To reach these objectives, first, it is needed a platform that include laboratories

and a network for each group of research where academic or experts can
exchange and give their contribute on area of problem.
 Idea1: University Centre of Health. (UCH) We have a Faculty of Nursing.

It would be interesting for university and region economy if we have a
centre of health that secure a laboratory for research, with modern
instruments to provide services for community and involve in the
construction process lot of enterprises, small and big companies and of
course the academic staff of university.
 Idea2: University Centre of Information Technology (UCIT). Actually, we

have developed four curricula in Information Technology Sciences. The
knowledge about tools, methods and several solutions of information
technology is a good benefit for everyone that studies in this field. We
have a team that works to solve several problems in education, transport,
management and administration which need informatics solutions. This
centre takes place in RDC laboratories and can participate academics
that contribute in training process of RDC office and attract excellent
students, closing the triangle: Education-Research- Innovation. The
centre involves economy and business, society, education institution of
region or individuals because here they find fast and tested solutions
software applications, maintenance, administration of information
systems, small applications for automation of processes, etc.
Development of Applied Curricula
The university needs to be update in order to serve better to community and to

complete gaps of skills in the labor market. Using RDC Center, we are become
a secure partner for the validation of professional skills and a good human
resource which supports the needs ideas, experts and professionalism for
business and economy of the region:
 RDC center can be closer to the real needs of the community and so can
transfer requirements to academic level of study programmes to change
or update or make others more attractive and effective.
137
 Through several courses for the continuous education, RDC Center can
discover, choose and register the potential competencies of individuals
creating information bridges to business.
Development of human resources
We think that the university should be the main institution that plays the most
important role in the employment of students that are graduated in its auditors.
But, how we play this role, or if not, how we can gain this role? This is the
problem. We need to put basic standards that convince step by step the
community. In this case, we need:
 To review our curricula that we actually offer or to identify the quality of

assessment process.
 To emphasize the important role of practice and laboratory hours for

each subject of curricula.
 To create methods and tools for the verification and evaluation of

students competencies.
 To bring standards of European levels in our curricula and to promote

these standards in the world of business and society.
 To create a database of people that try to validate their skills and certify
them with new standards.
The study programmes have been reviewed integrating hours of practical

experiences from region business. This enforces the links between students as
future employees and managers of business that can know the capacities of
university to offer professional experts. Integrating the discussion between
academics-students-businessmen, we can help students to find their field of
interest and jobs, produce a chain of ideas for new business reaching the
probabilities of employment and success. We propose:
 Creating discussing business rooms where small projects of students will

be started after a selection process for the best which will win the
opportunity of implementation in a partner company.
138
 Creating an online database of offers –requests that will be managed by

RDC office for the employment of students graduated or no in our
university but their skills have been evaluated by our structures.
 Creating Consulting Office into RDC Centre that should help individual
person, institution to solve several problems.
 Creating a Call center online or guideline pages (better) online that help
everyone without charge to start a business.
Financial aspects are not discussed in the proposals.
Some aspects of RDC Project
Speaking above for small group of research, we have found resources to

become a RDC center a really enterprise that produces methods, tools,
solutions and innovation for the community. The project will deliver software
packages for every subject on study program for Low Cycle of education.
Concretely the project provides:
 An online information service that supports with software models and

simulations all topics of low education in Math, English, Paint,
Geography, Biology, History, etc.
 An online registration service for children, teacher, parents
 A structured packet of offers for our virtual products
 Tests of examination
 A portal in Albanian language for the communication and cooperation like

Moodle system to make easier for teacher delivery of assessments
 Guidelines for the use of our products
 Other services like web pages for schools or administration systems for
schools
Main activities of project include:
 Gathering information: for the expertise to cover the work in the field of
programming and
139
 Creating the team for every subject, gathering information needed to plan
the work
 Developing a strategy plan of work: that implicate children, teachers and

developers, designing and programming simulations, testing them,
creating package for every subject
 Implementing the project: Webpage for the new service offered with all
described options above
 Delivery of product for a school pilot. Testing the effects and promoting
the results.
Resources. This work will include all people that are interested in working in the
field of programming. That is a great experience and we have a good
participation of:
 Voluntary Academic staff
 Voluntary students
 Voluntary adults experts
 Voluntary Teachers
Conclusion
This work brings a good experience on establishment of third mission activities

in Vlora university that can be used as a process guideline for other institution.
Lifelong education is a process that does not finish. After graduating, the
education is focused on developing new competencies with regard to economic
growth, competitiveness, social status, etc. Life Long Learning can establish the
communication between academic study programme and professional practice
in the field through the continuous education. The reality is that actually this link
is weak in many groups of people that work in institutions, organizations or
other entities for several reasons. Both University and institutions operate
separately and more or less independently from each other. It is very important
that we can realize a new process in both directions to exchange opinions for
140
the enhancement and further development of effective learning in RDC. We

propose some solutions:
1. Using and starting new interests for the continuous education

participating in Lifelong Learning projects.
2. A stronger relationship between research, the policy and the practice

could contribute to solving this problem.
3. A network which will seek to identify the kinds of research which are
undertaken on academic level of education in university and how the
research is used by different stakeholders including policy makers,
practitioners and others in the field of adult education. To ensure the
success it is important:
 To provide a list of activities in order to make a dialogue between

academic researches, professional expertise
 To improve the effectiveness of education into the field of

professional practice in courses through the involvement of
research for the field.
 To improve practice competencies through new methodologies

using laboratories and real products in the field of short courses
 To know the real situation, the human resources, the needs of our
economy and society. Make present resources offers in front of
economy requests, academic research and practice in some area
like
a. access in the new technologies
b. skills quality and competencies validation,
c. learning and new methods of learning
d. new media and its role in the economy
 To gather information, create experiences developing and

evaluating models of good theory and practice in the transfer of
research results to professional practice and exploring ways if
involving practitioners in research.
141
 Develop appropriate products that we can deliver to community

like schools, public institution, private enterprises making the logo
of RDC everywhere.
References
Montesinos, P., Carot, J.M., Martínez, J.M., & Mora, F. (2008). Third Mission
Ranking for World Class Universities: beyond teaching and research.
Higher Education in Europe, 33(2/3), 259-271.
Mora, J-G., Detmer, A., & Vieira, M. J. (Eds) (2010). Good Practices in
University-Enterprise Partnerships. European University. PRIME Position
Paper, version March 2007.
Sheil, T. (2010). Moving beyond university rankings: developing a world class

university system in Australia. Australian Universities’ Review, 52(1), 69-
76.
Tuunainen, J. (2005). Hybrid practices? Contributions to the Debate on the

Mutation of Science and University. Higher Education, 50(2), 275-298.
Vorley, T. & Nelles, J. (2008). (Re)Conceptualising the Academy: Institutional

Development of and beyond the Third Mission. Higher Education
Management and Policy, 20(3), 119-135.
142
U3M-AL PROJECT - DEVELOPING THIRD MISSION ACTIVITIES IN ALBANIAN
UNIVERSITIES
Project Nº: 530243-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-SMHES
This publication reflects only the views of the authors, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information
contained therein.

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Developing Third Mission Activities

Developing Third Mission Activities in

University of León, Spain

Technical University of Valencia, Spain

University of Turku, Finland

Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Ministry of Education and Sport, Albania

University of Shkodra, Albania

University of Gjirokastra, Albania

University of Durres, Albania

Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania

University of Korça, Albania

University of Vlora, Albania

University Solutions, Spain

Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Italy

U3M-AL PROJECT - DEVELOPING THIRD MISSION ACTIVITIES IN ALBANIAN UNIVERSITIES

1 Institutional perspective and Social Engagement 7

Good practices of 3M activities in Latin American universities ............................ 7

3M Activity of Students of Faculty of Electrical Engineering ................................ 9

Engaging Albanians: a Pyramidal Guide Model to Community Integration of

The role of universities in fostering regional development: not only technology

Regional Development Centre in University of Gjirokastra ................................ 14

Regional Development Centre in University of Shkodra .................................... 17

2 Technology Transfer & Innovation 22

The role of universities as collaboration platforms in emerging economies ....... 25

3 Continuing Education 28

Full papers ............................................................................................................... 29

The Third Mission of Universities: focus, main indicators and descriptors in a

3D body scanning technique for anthropometric measurements and custom

The Evolution of University Technology Transfer towards Involvement with

Application of museum space within the university ........................................... 95

Charter school performance and continuing education challenges ................. 106

Starting Lifelong Learning Activities: A New Experience on Developing the Third

In order to promote Third Mission activities in universities of Albania, the

1. Developing relationships between Albanian universities and society

2. Establishing Regional Development Centres for promoting and

3. Establishing an Albanian network of Third Mission activities for promoting

The project U3M-AL focuses on promoting 3M activities in Albanian universities,

The present book of proceedings is the result of an open call of proposals

This dissemination activity was oriented towards participating universities but

The general objectives of this Conference are:

1. To present the achievements of the project to the Albanian and

2. To have a deeper and final reflection on the relevance of 3M activities for

3. To propose concrete models for the implementation of 3M activities.

4. To identify and discuss the main obstacles of the implementation of 3M

5. To present the dissemination actions of the project.

6. To illustrate the bridges between Albanian universities and society

7. To present the process that several Albanian Universities have followed

8. To present the Albanian network of 3M activities for promoting these

dissemination of the project. Finally, Albanian partners have played a central

 Track 1: Institutional perspective and Social Engagement

 Track 2: Technology Transfer & Innovation

 Track 3: Continuing Education

1 INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Good practices of 3M activities in Latin American universities

José Ginés Mora. Institute of Education, University of London (United Kingdom)

María José Vieira. University of León (Spain)

 Mapping relationship with the environment in the 28 participating

 Learning visits to some EU universities.

 A selection of good practices related to national policies, institutional

 Conferences and seminars to facilitate exchanges between universities.

 Creating a 3M network in Latin America.

Additionally, this paper focuses on examples of good practices in each of the