Universities play an important role as leaders in teaching and learning, in education, research and technology. In teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. The role of the universities is very important to all sectors from social as well legal point of view.
Education aim at the inculcation of personal values as honesty, probity and equity that are requisite for national development. Thus, apart from the generation and dissemination of universal knowledge, universities also pay attention to the knowledge of and practical acquisition of those personal values that are essential for social development in a nation.
Traditionally, there are three main roles of a university in national development: teaching, research and knowledge and technology transfer. The content and form of each of these functions depends in principle on the socioeconomic contexts in which universities operate.
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The Roles of a University in National Development
The roles of a university in national development as repositories and generators of knowledge. The obligation to equip graduates so that they can obtain viable employment. The obligation to offer rational and timely criticism in areas of public policy and social and economic life.
1. Production of Developmental Research
One of the roles of a university in national development is the production of developmental research. This involves providing invaluable contextualized knowledge, insights and locally relevant recommendations for policy formulation and implementation; solving existential problems; creating technological products; and producing new knowledge that can be adapted for economic, political and social improvement.
Developmental research projects could originate in the university or be a response to a request from private organizations or government with appropriate funding attached.
2. Develop Graduates with Skills
Another of a university in national development is to develop and turn out relevant and impactful graduates with the skills, knowledge and disposition needed to meet the societal development. For example, university is a powerful institution which can grooms the next generation of agricultural scientists, social scientists, policy-makers, business leaders and entrepreneurs, public servants and other professionals.
Universities can help in providing with the new knowledge and skills needed to meet the challenges of sustainable development in a community, in raising public awareness and providing preconditions for informed decision-making, responsible behavior and consumer choice. Universities are considered to have been regarded as key institutions in processes of social change and development.
4. Production of Highly Skilled Manpower
The most important roles of university in national development have been assigned as the production of highly skilled manpower and research output to meet perceived targets. Universities may play is in the building of new institutions of civil society, in developing new cultural values, and in training and socializing people of new social era.
