The Transformation of the Production and Circulation of Knowledge and the Pedagogic Synergy: A Research Study on Three Argentine Universities

Abstract

This article summaries some of the findings of research studies which explored the new role society has assigned to higher education institutions and its impact on the research, teaching, extension and transfer functions of university groups. The new mainstream discourse has assigned universities with a role relevant in the production of economic and therefore social wellbeing. Therefore, universities should be fully involved with other institutions in charge of creating economic wellbeing. Our focus was set on the changing mainstream discourse: as wellbeing is necessarily linked to the companies’ wellbeing, therefore the scientific and technological development must be at their service. The market is then in charge of regulating the new social role of university. Hence the first section of the article deals with the theoretical background on economic transformations in Argentina over the past twenty five years and their impact on the definitions of university and its functions, analyzing the weight of such economic determiners and the university margins of autonomy. The research study was undertaken by a team from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the National University of Misiones (UNaM) and the National University of Mar del Plata (UNMdP), on the impact of social and economic pressures on teaching and research groups of the three public universities. The article summarizes the main findings of this study on two major issues: (i) Universities faced with social and productive demands and the capacity of teaching-research groups to produce and circulate knowledge. (ii) The existence of pedagogic synergy, understood as the mutual exchange and influence of the teaching, research, transfer and extension activities.