Knowledge transfer is one of the main activities of Higher Education institutions (HEI) (Backhaus-Maul et al. 2024), which, however, does not only comprise cooperating with industry partners, but also with civil society and nonprofit organizations. The umbrella term – campus-community partnerships (CCP) means specific forms of cooperation (e.g. Service Learning, Community Research) between HEI and their communities to solve societal challenges. For the sustainable implementation of CCPs in HEI, change processes like organizational and personal development are needed (Gerholz et al. 2018). In the German speaking countries, we can observe CCPs as being ‘work in progress’ from an institutional point of view. The aim of the current study ‘Strategies and organizational structures for CCP at Higher Education Institutions in Germany’, which is funded by the Transferfonds of the Research Institute Social Cohesion, is to investigate the current status of development regarding knowledge transfer and cooperation with civil society and nonprofit-organizations on the one hand and Science and German HEI on the other hand. A mixed-method design was chosen encompassing a survey deployed among boards of HEI and staff separately as well as content analysis of transfer mission statements and interviews. A total of n=101 board members from HEI nationwide participated in the survey conducted in 2023. 44,3 percent of them agreed or tended to agree, that in HEI’s mission statements CCP was taken into account as a form of knowledge transfer. In contrast, only one fourth (24, 7 percent) of the board members agreed/tended to agree to the statement that the institutionalization of CCP is advanced in Germany. Regarding aspects of institutionalizing CCPs, 10,9 percent of the board members reported the establishment of a position to coordinate CCP activities, whereas approximately one third of the participants (30,6 and 38,6 percent) announced giving incentives to lecturers and students. However, crosstabs revealed relationships between giving incentives to students and the variables of HEI type (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=70, p =.011) and research orientation of the HEI (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=67, p =.028) as well as between incentives for lecturers and registered students (Fisher-Freeman-Halton, n=72, p =.038). Furthermore, correlation analysis showed statistically significant relationships between the importance attached to CCPs as a form of knowledge transfer and the perceived degree of institutionalization (Spearmans ρ = .443, p < .001) as well as between the latter and the use of internal resources (Spearmans ρ = .635, p < .001).

Backhaus-Maul, H., Fücker, S., Grimmig, M., Kamuf, V., Nuske, J. & Quent, M. (Eds.) (2024). Forschungsbasierter Wissenstransfer und gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt. Theorie, Empirie, Konzepte und Instrumente, Frankfurt/New York. Gerholz, K.-H., Backhaus-Maul, H. & Rameder, P. (2018): Editorial: Civic Engagement in Higher Education Institutions in Europe. Journal for Higher Education Development, Vol. 13/ I. 2, 9-19.