From first to third stream activities in higher education: the case of the Spanish Defence University centre

ABSTRACT

The paper adds to the debate on the relationship between military spending and economic growth by analysing the contribution of a military university centre to regional economic development. It goes beyond traditional economic impact studies by including research related effects and integrating “third stream” activities. Conceptualization and categorization are carried out to thoroughly analyse the different dimensions of knowledge and “third stream” actions. The analysis is performed from its settlement and during its first 5 years of existence which allows showing how the strategy of community engagement is developed. The conclusion suggests that, as traditional military roles extend, and military education institutions become higher education institutions, a comprehensive evaluation should be taken into account to enrich the public debate on government spending.

KEYWORDS:

• Third stream activities
• knowledge
• research
• military university
• global evaluation

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the management team of Centro Universitario de la Defensa Zaragoza, especially to Andrés Magallon, for data provision and helpful advice throughout this project. Thanks also to Jorge Rosell for encouragement, and to referees, and seminar participants at DESEi+D 2015 Meeting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Three university centres were established for the Army, Navy and Air Force respectively.

2. Traditionally the University of Zaragoza and the Spanish General military academy have had a collaborative relationship to develop activities related to their respective areas of expertise such as conferences, defence chairs, and specialised courses.

3. Data on facilities and infrastructure investments come from the Military academy archives. Average student spending data come from Military Academy internal reports.

4. These industries are used in other economic impact studies of education institutions for the Spanish economy; see Pérez García and Pastor Monsálvez (2009) on Valencian State Universities and Pastor Monsálvez and Peraita (2011) on University of Zaragoza among others.

5. Indirect employment figures of Military Academy previous were around 100. Source: Military Academy archives.

6. All UCD faculty have been searched for and identified in Scopus. This allows having access to the complete record of documents for each member along with her professional career.

7. IUNE is an observatory that carries out and provides an evaluation of the research of Spanish Universities.

8. As Jin and Jin (2013) we restrict to articles published in journals in the first quartile of JCR.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología [ECO2016-76255-P, ECO2017-86305-C4-2-R];Centro Universitario de la Defensa [2013-08, 2016-16 and 2017-21];Gobierno de Aragón [Compete S52_17R];Universidad de Zaragoza [UZCUD2018-SOC-04]

Notes on contributors

Francisco José Callado-Muñoz

Francisco José Callado-Muñoz. Doctor, Associate Professor at Centro Universitario de la Defensa Zaragoza. Author and co-author of more than 15 scientific articles and 9 book chapters. Reserch interests: Economics, Development, Business Economics and Education economics.

Natalia Utrero-González

Natalia Utrero-González. Doctor, Associate Professor at Centro Universitario de la Defensa Zaragoza.Author and co-author of more than 15 scientific articles and 13 book chapters. Research interests: Economics, Development, Business Economics and Education economics.