Impacts of the University-society Linking Process: The Case of the Locality ‘El Valle’, Ecuador

The management of university education is based on three fundamental pillars: teaching, research and university-society links. This last process emerged in the mid-19th century as a result of the research dynamics in developed countries and the need to interact with the environment in a way that was not limited to training but also promoted the transfer of knowledge and technology to the socio-economic sphere. The aim of this paper is to show the results obtained from the measurement of the impact of the intervention project carried out in the local community of ‘El Valle’, Ecuador, on the productive associations made up mainly of women who operate under the Popular and Solidarity Economy (EPS) approach. The project was led by professors from the Salesian Polytechnic University (UPS). The techniques employed included the evaluation of deliverables and surveys of the involved members of the GAD (Autonomous Decentralized Government), teachers, community members and students. The results made it possible to evaluate the fulfillment of the proposed objectives in terms of organizational strengthening and women's empowerment, as well as the enrichment of the teaching process through the practical involvement of both teachers and students. In addition, the main difficulties of the process were identified, highlighting the lack of continuity in local policies and strategies for the consolidation of networks between local actors that promote the development of the territory and the need to improve the forms of monitoring and evaluation of projects. Keywords: impact measurement; linkage projects; university-society; local actors; local development.