In September 2019, our University became a signatory to the University's Declaration of Social Responsibility. Social responsibility of a university (SRU) is defined as a strategic and systemic approach to managing the university and building collaboration and dialogue with stakeholders that contributes to:

• sustainable development,
• shaping the values and attitudes of civil society,
• supporting academic values and creating new ideas,
• the development of scientific and teaching competences affecting business efficiency and innovation.

SRU is a voluntary activity and goes beyond legal obligations. It means opening up more to internal stakeholders (students, staff) and external stakeholders (local community, local authorities, businesses, alumni, NGOs, etc.), as well as to the environment.

The declaration represents a voluntary commitment by universities to promote sustainability and social responsibility in their educational programmes, research, and management and organisational solutions. The aim of the Declaration is to create broad public awareness of the role of universities in shaping the conditions for sustainable socio-economic development in the country.

Contents of the declaration:

The special role of universities, as a place for creating and transmitting knowledge about the reality around us, obliges them to take into account and apply the principles of social responsibility in all areas of their activities and to disseminate these principles to their stakeholders. Bearing in mind the good of higher education in Poland and being aware of our role in the implementing of the principles of sustainable development, ensuring high quality research and education and nurturing the comprehensive development of the academic community, we pledge to:

1) Nurture the academic values enshrined, inter alia, in the 'Code of Ethics for Academic Staff' in particular: conscientiousness, objectivity, independence, openness and transparency.

2) Shape the social and civic attitudes of future elites that foster community building, creativity, openness and communication, as well as social sensitivity and a work culture.

3) Promote equality, diversity, and tolerance, and respect and protect human rights for the whole academic community and its environment.

4) Expand curricula to include issues of ethics and corporate social responsibility, sustainability and social innovation.

5) Implement projects introducing the principles of social responsibility, in particular these regarding diversity management in the workplace, employee volunteering, promotion of ethics, intersectoral cooperation or socially engaged marketing.

6) Undertake research and implementation work that, in partnership with other academic centres from around the world, the business sector, public administration and non-governmental organisations, can contribute to solving important social problems.

7) Develop inter-university, national and international cooperation enabling the adaptation and enhancement of best practices in the field of university social responsibility.

8) Take care of the university's organisational governance, basing the university's management on the foundations of social responsibility, both in the strategic documents and in the resulting activities for the comprehensive development of the academic community and the effective implementation of the university's mission.

9) Ensure the transparency of the activities carried out by the university by, inter alia, measuring results, promoting and disseminating outputs, and identifying the person or team coordinating these activities.

10) Conduct activities in such a way as to minimise the negative impact of the activities carried out by the academic community and its stakeholders on the natural environment in all its dimensions.

11) Engage in dialogue with stakeholders on the priorities of the university's social responsibility policy and communicate the results.

12) To observe the principles of ethics and responsibility in the teaching and research process for the purpose of providing optimal conditions for stakeholders to benefit from the knowledge, intellectual capital and achievements of the university*.

Below, we present good practices in the field of the Social Responsibility of the University, implemented by the Faculties of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce.