Understanding the Societal Impact of Education
How to capture the (positive) impacts of education activities, when their societal effects are only very indirect?
Together with Singapore Management University and Singapore Green Finance Centre, we tackled this question to understand and demonstrate the societal impact of academic research.
How the report helps education and academic institutions
By systemically analysing various impact frameworks for academic research, we developed impact pathways that connect research outputs to measurable economic and policy impacts. Using this integrated approach, we were able to:
- Provide a framework for research institutions to understand their value creation and enhance their role in addressing societal challenges.
- Show how the indirect effects of academic research can be broken down into tangible steps, thereby identifying required data points for such a measurement. This provides a proof of concept that future research can build upon
- Demonstrate the chain of effects underlying such impacts can be linked and backed by academic literature, and where more research is required.
How other institutions can use the report
With our work, we can lay the foundation for much valuable follow-up research to eventually quantify highly indirect impacts.
Our report includes:
- A conceptual overview of the impact of academic research
- Our developed approach to capture the impact of academic research, building on the Impact-Weighted Accounts Framework (IEF) and integrating insights from several relevant frameworks
- A deep-dive into potential impact pathways in the impact areas of economy and policy, including a breakdown of the various steps of the pathways, an overview of primary data, relevant secondary data from studies and example applications of the selected studies to fill data gaps
Let us help you
We know many institutions, not only universities, struggle to showcase their value clearly due to the indirect nature of their impact. That’s why our advisory services are here to help your organization measure and enhance your societal contributions effectively. Through tailored support, we guide institutions on their journey to better impact measurement and management, an approach that directs how effects can be made tangible and visible.
To further scale your efforts, explore our Impatec platform — a cutting-edge solution designed to help organizations of all sizes efficiently measure and communicate their societal impact at scale.
