A The meaning of life is the purpose that defines a person’s existence based on a set of fundamental objectives that give meaning to life or not. Furthermore, not all individuals have a meaning in life, and it may be absent at some point or stage of life. Objective: To analyze Peruvian older adults’ socioeconomic factors and the meaning of life. Method: A descriptive, comparative, quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted. One thousand older adults were intentionally selected through quotas of 100 older adults in 10 localities in Arequipa, Peru. They were administered a survey validated with high levels of reliability on the meaning of life and socioeconomic factors. Results: A moderate level of meaning in life was found. Most older adults believe that increasing age decreases the purpose of living, and existential emptiness grows. Conclusions: Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the meaning of life and the following socioeconomic factors: retirement, religion, educational level, cohabitation, marital status, income, and occupation. It is understood that older adults who scored higher on these factors indicate having meaning in life because they still fulfill the role of providers for the family economy, being util to their families compared to the majority who scored low, which indicates an absence of meaning of life leading to an increase existential void.

The aim of the research is to prove that nowadays the role of higher education, its impact on “territorial capital” and the factors of their competitiveness measurement have changed. Competitiveness should no longer be measured only in terms of rankings between higher education institutions, but also in terms of their role in territorial capital. Examining the extension of a competitiveness measurement model developed for small and medium-sized enterprises to the field of higher education can be exciting because the competitive situation between higher education institutions is strengthening, and its aspects are not limited to winning tender funds and the competition for students. The subject of this study is the Central European higher education in general and the Hungarian higher education specifically. Higher education as it appears in regional strategic documents, and the regional, third mission role of higher education institutions appearing in their strategic documents. In terms of methodology: the first part of the paper is based on document and content analysis. In the second part of the paper, institutional characteristics that may influence competitiveness are identified in the case of a Hungarian higher education institution with SME characteristics. The research concludes that the impact on territorial capital, together with the traditional characteristics of higher education and its third missionary role, may constitute the competitiveness of a given institution. If the impact of higher education institutions on location could be measured uniformly, competition between institutions would be more transparent and the role of the region would be strengthened.