Governance, ethics and accountability in universities strategic plans

Universities mission is not limited to creating and sharing knowledge with students, companies and the society in general. Universities have the responsibility to work for common good improvement and for global important issues solutions. This inclusive mission and the purpose to have a positive impact on society respecting all the stakeholders are framed into the University Social Responsibility (USR) concept. USR, as the Corporate Social Responsibility for enterprises, helps universities to gain a competitive advantage and to be legitimated to operate and to improve their reputation. Within the educational field, public education organizations should accomplish the following requirements: be valuable, politically sustainable, legitimated and feasible. To be legitimated and to maintain this legitimacy, universities need to implement policies and procedures which ensure transparency and accountability in their decision-making process and governance. The objective of this research is to analyze how Spanish public universities talk about governance, ethics and accountability in their Strategic Plan.