The University Social Responsability: new challenges by university governance?[La RSU : de nouveaux enjeux formulés par la gouvernance des universités?]

With the awareness of sustainable development and social responsibility issues, more and more actors wonder about the way they can act in a socially responsible way. Among these actors, we now find the higher education. So even if we observe in most European countries and around the world, the non-existence of a legal obligation, there is a growing commitment on behalf of universities on these problems. Nevertheless, what is the real implementation of such a social policy ? What are the stakes and expectations of each partner and more particularly of university governance ? This article suggests an exploratory study based on various establishments in France and throughout the world to understand the USR. In general, there are many SD and USR actions and practices which are being implemented in all the mentioned institutions, without additional financial help. Neither is there a systematic dedicated service, pre-established plan or program. That is the reason why there are a lot of different practices. Therefore, we cannot talk about the implementation of a real strategy, but rather the construction of a state-approved image in order to be competitive. Several universities use this image with the only purpose to communicate about it through their speeches.