Interpreting the needs of the community. A proposal for a management system of the links between higher education institutions and civil society organizations in Ecuador

Abstract

The relationship between higher education institutions (HEIs) and civil society organizations (CSOs), and their specific focus on urban-marginal and rural communities, seeks to promote a transformational future for the society in Ecuador. Besides generating knowledge, HEIs are responsible for transferring such knowledge to society. For this reason, this article seeks to offer a proposal for the management of community outreach work based on an exploratory research method used in the projects, proposals and community outreach models of HEIs in Ecuador and internationally. We seek to answer the question of how to articulate the substantive functions of higher education in order to acknowledge the significant weight that community outreach has in academic work. The outcomes of this research are: a) a design of articulation of research, teaching and community outreach; b) a management system to connect HEIs-CSOs; and c) a meeting platform between IES and CSOs. This will open the way for continuing to research and empirically validate the instruments