Understanding the Regional Engagement of Universities from a Stakeholders’ Perspective: The Case of the University of Thessaly, Greece

International literature pays vast attention to the role and regional engagement of universities as a facilitator sustainable development. Most papers use top-down approaches by looking at how well conceptual models university’s fit any case study considered or measuring predefined dimensions university engagement. The present paper prioritizes stakeholder views provides framework for revealing critical from bottom-up perspective. region Thessaly is selected study, conceptualized four-dimensional that considers contributions, student roles, beneficiaries, barriers. Then, through survey, relevant items are provided stakeholders formulate potential factors. factors extracted using principal component analysis, then consensus different on their response patterns also evaluated with statistical tests. In practical terms, analysis shows capable number could be formulated under each dimension there not many significant differences in perceptions, regardless institutional role. theoretical identified may act baseline future evaluation.