Posted by Louise Kempton, 6th November, 2013<\/p>\n
It is interesting to note how the word \u2018local\u2019 has been quietly dropped from the title of the Witty review of \u2018Universities and Growth\u2019 which was released in October.\u00a0 The original terms of reference published in April was entitled \u2018Universities in their Local Communities: Enabling Economic Growth\u2019 and talked about exploring \u201cthe range of ways that universities contribute to their local economies including as agents of research and innovation, as providers of skills, employers, purchasers of goods and services, and as facilitators bringing people together\u201d and \u201chow to create an integrated strategy between the local and national players\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However in the six months between the terms of reference being written and the publication of the final report there would appear to have been some influence brought to bear to remove any hint of a \u2018place\u2019 agenda in describing the (potential) role universities can play in driving growth.\u00a0 In fact the final document has executed a superlative volte-face, and instead is now urging that funding should be structured \u201cby technology\/industry opportunity \u2013 not by postcode.\u201d\u00a0 It also tells us to \u201cembrace the country\u2019s density of population and institutions\u201d, all of which will be music to the ears of those institutions that happen to be located in areas that are \u2018thick\u2019 with potential collaborators in both the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n
Likewise there will be sighs of relief to be heard in research intensive universities located in parts of the country that are struggling economically, as any\u00a0 fears of being forced, or even just expected to help build the capacity of their local economies in return for access to public funding has been once again been overlooked.\u00a0 They now have carte blanche to work with the \u2018best\u2019 collaborators wherever they might be, as it is now all about benefitting UK plc. Unfortunately the \u2018best\u2019 tend to be concentrated in the parts of the country that are most economically vibrant, and herein lies the paradox.\u00a0 Places with the greatest need for investment in innovation will often not have the existing industrial capacity required to assimilate and capitalise on new knowledge or applications stemming from research in their local universities. Thus universities located in these places of low absorptive capacity that do generate research with industrial applications are more likely to seek commercialisation opportunities further afield with suitable national or international firms.\u00a0 So the \u2018rich\u2019 (places) get richer and the \u2018poor\u2019 (places) get poorer.<\/p>\n
Witty also offers an extremely narrow definition of the role universities can play in contributing to economic growth.\u00a0 The underlying assumption seems to be that the only (economic) value that can be derived from universities is in scientific and technological fields.\u00a0 Bodies such as the European Commission and OECD take a very different line, and they have given increasing prominence to the importance of the research strengths of universities in\u00a0 the arts, humanities and social sciences \u2013 for example contributions to the creative industries, business processes, service (including public service) design and policy and practice in the field of urban and regional development.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the OECD in its highly esteemed reviews of higher education and territorial development\u00a0 in 47 regions across member countries emphasises not only the potential contribution universities can make to the economies of their cities and regions, but also the important roles they can play in social and cultural development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For its part the European Commission through its new approach to regional development known as \u2018smart specialisation\u2019 (which will be an underpinning concept of structural funding post 2013) explicitly acknowledges\u00a0 the role of universities not only as generators of research and knowledge, but also in helping to build absorptive, leadership and collaborative capacity locally.\u00a0 It states that \u201cSmart specialisation ascribes a key role to universities as actors in their local innovation eco-systems, connecting global and local knowledge domains, and arguably gives them far more prominence than has been the case in previous structural funding programmes. There is a compelling case therefore for universities to play \u2026. a much more broadly defined role than just generators of technological research and other \u2018upstream\u2019 activities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In contrast the Witty review presents us with a view of the world in which the contribution of universities to economic development is necessarily linear and in one direction \u2013 this is even reflected in the language used to present the report\u2019s big idea of \u201carrow\u201d projects.\u00a0 This kind of terminology (and likewise \u2018Catapults\u2019) is in danger of presenting an oversimplified view of how economic development and innovation happens.\u00a0 If we must rely on simplistic\u00a0 terms such as \u2018arrows\u2019\u00a0 maybe \u2018boomerangs\u2019 would be more appropriate?\u00a0 At least they usually return to the place from where they were launched!<\/p>\n The idea that pouring money into university research will release a plethora of inventions that the private sector can just pick up and successfully commercialise is one that has been extensively critiqued in the academic literature.\u00a0\u00a0 The \u2018valley of death\u2019 syndrome is well evidenced by the number of patent family applications resulting from research heavily funded by the UK public purse.\u00a0 A recent study\u00a0 by the Intellectual Property Office shows the highest ranked UK applicant for portfolios of patents relating to graphene (Manchester University) is in joint 163rd place worldwide, in a \u2018league table\u2019 dominated by Korean and Chinese corporations and universities.<\/p>\n While it is certainly the case that UK universities are highly ranked and regarded worldwide for their quality research, the challenge of how to translate\u00a0 this \u2018excellence\u2019 into innovation for the benefit of the national economy seems to beyond the grasp of policy makers.\u00a0 There would appear to be resistance to any move that could be interpreted as \u2018telling universities what to do\u2019 in return for their public funding, based on the argument that this might curtail their ability to seek and attain global \u2018excellence\u2019.\u00a0 But is academic excellence being pursued at the cost of the public good?<\/p>\n There needs to be more proactive support for the growing links between universities and their Local Enterprise Partnerships, particularly in terms of designing plans for the allocation and use of EU structural and investment funds and look at good practice examples.\u00a0 Policy makers should be seeking guidance on how to actively promote and incentivise these kinds of local partnerships rather than continue to rely on mutual goodwill and trust between local leaders.\u00a0 To support these endeavours the parts of government concerned with economic growth should revisit the recommendations of the Heseltine Review and devolve some of the centrally managed budgets targeted at promoting innovation if they want to\u00a0 ensure all parts of the UK places can absorb and retain the potential benefits of universities in their areas.<\/p>\n [i] Higher education in regional and city development<\/a><\/p>\n [ii] Graphene – The worldwide patent landscape in 2013<\/a> (PDF, 4,413KB)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted by Louise Kempton, 6th November, 2013 It is interesting to note how the word \u2018local\u2019 has been quietly dropped from the title of the Witty review of \u2018Universities and Growth\u2019 which was released in October.\u00a0 The original terms of … Continue reading