Dr Karen Maas has been invited to Corvinus University as an Invited Distinguished Research Fellow by CIAS to do research on the societal impact of the universities. The question of how universities and other educational institutions contribute to society has become an increasingly relevant and timely topic. Her research is carried out by a team of six people at Corvinus University. She already spent a month in Budapest in March and will be here for several weeks in April, May and June. “I really love Budapest, it’s a beautiful city”, she says. 

The Dutch professor holds a chair in Accounting & Sustainability at the Open University, Heerlen, the Netherlands. She is also the academic director of the Impact Centre Erasmus, a research centre at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Her area of expertise is sustainability, accounting and impact strategies.   

Dr Maas’ research project at CIAS is focused on how universities impact society through research, education, social engagement and facilities. It aims to produce a toolkit that helps these institutions better understand, measure, and improve their societal impact. They may pilot the toolkit at Corvinus University and potentially other universities depending on funding. 

“First, we will do a literature review to assess what actually the societal impact means, how it is defined, what does it entail and how it is assessed. We have collected 998 scientific papers that we are now analysing. Then we are going to do research in practice and analyse the more than 30 evaluation methods that are used by universities to say something about their societal impact”, explains Dr Maas the research process. 

The professor points out that universities often claim to be engines of positive change, but actual practices and impacts are rarely assessed in a strategic or standardised way. There seems to be a gap between institutional claims, measurable outcomes and actual societal impact. 

“Sometimes the statements sound very nice, but if you ask what they are doing exactly, they come up with a list, which is not very strategic, not very comprehensive and not comparable. They are just picking some things, and then say: ‘Look, what we did!’”, says Dr Maas, highlighting that their research project at CIAS aims to critically evaluate existing assessment methods and to explore how actual societal effects can be meaningfully captured, for example, through students’ lives or changes in communities. 

As the professor explains, there are four key areas through which universities can have societal impact: research, education, social engagement, and facilities. When it comes to education, their impact should be measured not just by quantity on output level— like how many students graduate — but also by what they are actually teaching them and how this has changed their perspectives. Similarly, their research should focus on solving major global issues such as inequality, energy transition, food transition, sustainability. Facilities are also seen as influential, encompassing both environmental aspects like green buildings, and the broader impact of these educational institutions on the local community through housing prices and student-driven economic activity. 

There is currently no general agreement among researchers and academics on what constitutes positive societal impact. The concept remains broad, fragmented, and politically charged. Dr Maas reiterates that the research at CIAS aims to remain neutral and analytical. “Of course, we want to let universities be the force for good. And the good thing is that we have to build a more sustainable world. Then the question is, what does that mean?”, she says, adding that their team does not seek to elaborate on this in a normative way. 

“It’s quite interesting to see that when you type ‘universities’ in Google you already have some ideas of where you could start from. Many people claim that universities are bad, unequal, that they are for rich people and don’t provide a lot of societal impact. So, there’s a lot of negative claims, and what you would like to see, actually, is that universities are perceived as very positive organisations within society because they have a beautiful role to play. And that’s actually what we want to achieve with this research”, reiterates the Dutch professor.