Whilst significant attention has been devoted in the literature to examining the institutional configurations, incentives, and the governance of relationships across the triple helix of university-firm-government, less is known about the dynamics of the micro-foundations underpinning these interactions. In order to address this gap and using data from the Higher Education Business Community Interaction Survey (HEBCI), we take a longitudinal approach to examine how the configuration of the third mission, including knowledge exchange activities, and scale of resources, has changed across different types of English universities and over time. Our analysis shows the existence of different evolving third mission patterns in terms of institutional types, external partners and geography. These changes are arguably the consequences of two forces: macro-level external pressures and micro-level institutional practices, which reflect strategic prioritising of individual universities within the innovation system.