It has long been established that universities have three main functions: to teach, to research and supervise research, and to benefit the communities and regions in which they are located. In reality, the third main function permeates the other two. There are clearly social responsibilities to the students and to the staff who teach them and/or maintain their well-being through administration and other services such as counselling. Including issues of physical, social and economic well-being in their research portfolios is also common, though not universal. In this paper, we take a spatial scale approach to social responsibilities, which can take us from social responsibilities within the university, through what might be termed ‘civic responsibilities’, on to the immediate populations of a town or city, and then to ‘regional and international responsibilities’. The impact of the COVID19 pandemic in line with the sector’s social responsibility dynamic is also examined.

中文翻译：

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大学社会责任的多重背景

长期以来，大学具有三个主要功能：教学、研究和监督研究，以及造福所在社区和地区。实际上，第三个主要功能渗透到其他两个中。对学生和教他们和/或通过管理和其他服务（如咨询）维持他们的福祉的工作人员显然负有社会责任。在他们的研究组合中包括身体、社会和经济福祉问题也很常见，尽管并不普遍。在本文中，我们对社会责任采取空间尺度的方法，这可以将我们从大学内部的社会责任，通过所谓的“公民责任”，带到城镇或城市的直接人口，然后是“区域和国际责任”。还研究了 COVID19 大流行对行业社会责任动态的影响。