The project "SQUARE - Strengthening the quality and relevance of the third mission in Georgian universities" co-financed by the European Commission and led by Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University was completed in December 2023.

From the beginning of the project, the SQUARE project achieved significant results, starting from the impact on the wider community, ending with the strategic development plans/visions that the partner universities developed and demonstrated to other Georgian institutions as an exemplary practice in the third mission planning process.

The results of the project can be divided into three main areas: 

1. At the institutional level - the project served to raise awareness among Georgian universities about the third mission, which was well absorbed and used in the preparation of strategic visions/plans within their institutions; 
2.  At the policy level, the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia has prepared a vision document that defines the importance of the third mission for state universities. The document emphasizes its importance in the unified national strategy of education and science of Georgia for 2022-2030, and therefore Georgian universities have the motivation to focus on teaching/education and research in this direction as well. Taking into account the experience and importance of the SQUARE project, the Ministry launched the Competitive Innovation Fund project, within which acceptances were announced for projects aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of Georgian universities and supporting community involvement;
3. At the regulatory level, the National Center for Education Quality Development made changes to the National Standards for Accreditation of Higher Education Institutions and stated that the third mission component will be assessed during future institutional assessments.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which was the main obstacle to the project, the work of the consortium yielded more than expected results:

The voice of the project reached all possible interested parties: in the municipalities of the regional cities of Georgia: Kutaisi, Batumi, Gori; Tbilisi Municipality; Union of National Museums of Georgia; Nantes municipality and many others. The project promoted the cooperation of municipalities and the academy in terms of community development in the municipalities of Georgia and supported the cooperation between the municipalities of Tbilisi and Nantes; At the final conference of the project, a relevant panel discussion was held, which was dedicated to national and international donors to support the university's public involvement;

The project cooperated with several cross-projects at national and international level: it contributed to the Georgian society with HERD and RURD projects (both co-financed by the European Commission) and shared its experience with VISEGRAD funded projects at the international level;

An article on the project and its results is published in the Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation ICERI 2023;

During the course of the project, its main results were disseminated to a wide audience through international staff weeks and seminars organized by the Georgian partners of the consortium (TSU & CU), where international representatives from Ukraine were invited to introduce the project results.

Ukrainian colleagues also prepared an abstract and gave a speech at the final conference of the SQUARE project, where they spoke about the initiatives of the Third Mission of Ukraine at the Melitopol State Pedagogical University named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky.

The main stage of the project was the final conference "The role of the third mission in universities - local and global perspective". On the one hand, the conference summarized the results achieved within the framework of the SQUARE project over three years. On the other hand, it allowed Georgian and foreign universities, members of the consortium, to participate and present their views within the framework of the third mission, to share the best practices of their institutions. The audience had the opportunity to see how the third mission works in higher education not only in Georgia, but also in the external landscape. Representatives of Ukrainian, Czech, Armenian and US universities shared valuable information from their practice and once again confirmed that SQUARE was a novelty in the Georgian educational space.

Taking into account the results of the project and the feedback received from the audience at the final conference, it was announced that the conference "Third mission role in universities - local and global perspective" will be organized annually to maintain the results and impact achieved by the SQUARE project.

Additional information about the SQUARE project can be found at the link https://square.tsu.ge/

SQUARE Project – Irma Grdzelidze

The Erasmus+ Institutional Capacity Building Project "SQUARE - Strengthening the Quality and Relevance of the Third Mission in Georgian Universities," co-financed by the European Commission and coordinated by Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, was successfully completed in December 2023.

The SQUARE project has achieved extensive and significant outputs and outcomes since its inception, ranging from its impact on the wider community to the development of strategic plans and visions by partner universities. These plans have been showcased as exemplary practices in the Third Mission planning process, serving as demonstration models for other Georgian higher education institutions. Through the active involvement of top management and structural units, the project contributed to the creation of relevant methodologies and guidelines, strengthening the planning, implementation, and evaluation processes of the Third Mission in partner universities.

Key outcomes of the project can be displayed in three major directions: 1. On institutional level – project has served Georgian universities with awareness rising regarding third mission that was well absorbed and used while preparing strategic visions/plans for third mission inside their institutions; 2. On policy level – Ministry of Education and Science and Youth of Georgia prepared vision paper which defines the importance of third mission for national universities and highlights its place in the Unified National Strategy of Education and Science for 2022-2030 of Georgia, therefore encourages Georgian universities to pay attention to this direction along with teaching/learning and research. Considering the experiences and importance of the project SQUARE, MoESY initiated the Competitive Innovations Fund project, which announced calls for projects aimed at enhancing the institutional capacity of Georgian Universities and supporting societal engagement; 3. On regulatory level – National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement prepared the amendments in national standards of authorization for higher educational institutions and declared that evaluation of third mission component will be carried out during upcoming institutional evaluations.

Regardless of the covid19 pandemic, which was a major hindering factor for the project, the project consortium worked in a way that the project outcomes went beyond the expected ones:

The voice of the project was disseminated to all possible external stakeholders: municipalities of regional cities in Georgia: Kutaisi, Batumi, Gori; municipality of the capital city Tbilisi; Union of National Museums of Georgia; Municipality of Nantes and many others. Project has encouraged Municipality-Academia cooperation in terms of societal development in Georgian municipalities and supported collaboration between Tbilisi and Nantes municipalities; final conference of the project hosted respective panel discussion dedicated to the national and international donors for supporting the university's societal engagement;

Project has gone through several cross project cooperations on national and international levels: It has contributed to Georgian society with HERD and RURD projects (both co-financed by European Commission) and shared its experiences with VISEGRAD funded projects internationally;

The article regarding the project and its outcomes has been published in the conference proceedings of the 16th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation ICERI 2023;

During the lifetime of the project, its outputs and major outcomes have been disseminated to a wider audience via international staff weeks organized by Georgian partners of the consortium (TSU & CU) as well as the seminars where international peers from Ukraine were invited to observe project outcomes ;

Ukrainian colleagues have participated in other ways as well in the SQUARE project: they have prepared the abstract and gave the speech during the final conference of the SQUARE project describing the third mission initiatives Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Ukraine has had in its history.

Major milestone of the project was its final conference "Addressing 3rd Mission in Universities: Local and Global". On the one hand, the conference summarized the results achieved within the framework of the SQUARE project over three years. On the other hand, it allowed non-consortium member Georgian and foreign universities to participate and present their state of mind in terms of the third mission, to share best practices from their institutions. Therefore, the audience was granted with the opportunity to observe how the third mission in higher education works not only in Georgia, but also on the outside landscape. Representatives from Ukraine, Czech Republic, Armenia, USA universities have shared valuable insights from their practices and proved once again that SQUARE was pure novelty for Georgian educational landscape.

At the project's final conference, it was announced that an international conference should be held annually to sustain and further disseminate the results achieved by the SQUARE project. Following this decision, the second annual international conference took place on November 14-15, 2024, hosted by Caucasus University, a consortium partner. The event gathered representatives from Georgia and 12 other countries, including project consortium members, representatives of the research and scientific foundations, representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, representatives of the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement, embassy and business representatives and other stakeholders. 

More information regarding the SQUARE project is available at https://square.tsu.ge/