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From Denial of Place to Death of Distance: Higher education institutions working for their regions
This article has been prepared for Pascal by Richard Yelland, Head of IMHE at OECD. The project that it describes explored in very practical ways questions at the heart of Pascal’s mission: how can academic knowledge and the work of universities more generally be put to practical use in supporting learning city-regions, enhancing social capital, etc; and what modes of collaboration actually work in which settings.
The article explains the launch of the project findings in the form of a monograph at Valencia in September. Immediately after this OECD Conference, the annual Pascal conference at Pecs in Hungary will offer an opportunity for OECD project participants to review what has happened since the project, and consider what further work they would like to undertake together. Within the Pecs conference there will be Round Table session on the project which will enable a wider group to discuss further work in this area, building on the results of the OECD project.
The OECD project on higher education and regional development
The notion of a university as a detached site for knowledge for its own sake was once important to the credibility and legitimacy of the institution. This ‘denial of place’ changed with the expansion of higher education and a greater focus on indigenous knowledge creation in regions. Now the forces of globalisation and the ICT revolution are bringing about the ‘death of distance’, whereby any place with an internet connection can participate in the knowledge economy. And yet innovation still continues to cluster around specific regions, notably those with vibrant communities, skilled people and higher education institutions...
IMHE, the OECD programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education, in collaboration with the OECD Territorial Development and Public Governance Directorate, has conducted a comparative review of how issues relating to higher education institutions and their regional engagement are addressed in OECD countries. The project, entitled Supporting the Contribution of Higher Education Institutions to Regional Development, looked for innovative solutions as to how to manage the regional interface.
OECD launched the project in the spring of 2004 as a response to a wide range of initiatives across OECD countries to mobilise higher education in support of regional development. It set out to find answers to the following questions: What is higher education’s regional engagement all about? What are its drivers and barriers? What does it mean for the governance and management of higher education institutions (HEIs), for regions and for nations? And how does regional engagement fit with the pursuit of world class academic excellence?
The biggest project in the history of IMHE is now drawing to a close. Fourteen regions in twelve countries have been reviewed. The final report drawing from the experience of the regions and OECD territorial reviews will be published in September 2007 on the occasion of a high level policy conference in Valencia. What have we learned? What are the pointers for the future? And has anything changed in the regions?
Constraints and challenges
Most OECD countries have witnessed a policy shift: from giving disadvantaged regions state aid to supporting indigenous development through skills, entrepreneurialism and innovation. Concepts such as industrial clusters and learning regions imply that the knowledge and learning infrastructure of a region is pivotal. Policy responses which first focused on enhancing the capacity for technological innovation have now been widened to include social and organisational innovation.
Higher education in some OECD countries is characterised by administrative-based systems, leaving little room for autonomy and flexibility to decide on inputs and outputs. Ministries of Education often act as champions of the role of higher education and research in meeting national and international aspirations. Even when engagement with business and the community has been recognised and laid upon HEIs as a duty, it has remained a ‘third task’, not linked to research and teaching.
Current funding and incentive structures do not sufficiently support the regional engagement of HEIs: research is funded on a geographically neutral basis and funding for teaching is not oriented towards building human capital in deprived regions. Moreover, structures and arrangements within HEIs offer limited incentives or resources to staff to pursue activity that serves the local region. The appropriate metrics in the regional domain are also underdeveloped.
Tying the global to the local
Higher education can help cities and regions to become globally competitive. Globalisation and localisation are making the local availability of knowledge and skills more and more important. But HEIs also need their regions. This is how Professor John Goddard, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle in England and the academic leader of the OECD review project, sees the situation:
HEIs and regions cannot all compete successfully on equal terms on the global stage. The global competition in higher education is headed by the most wealthy US research universities. For them regional engagement may be irrelevant, but for those in the second tier the regional support for their global aspirations may be essential. HEIs need to mobilise regional support and remain attractive institutions to top flight academics. To achieve this they need to reconcile the tensions between two rationalities: the HE rationality of detachment, and the science and technology driven rationality of close interaction with business and the community.
Recently, Trondheim in Norway became ‘Europe’s search capital’ when Google, Yahoo and a few smaller start-ups established their R&D departments there. This could not have happened without the skilled labour in the search community in Trondheim and the proximity of the Norwegian University of Technology which has for years had a research focus in this field and continues to train highly skilled graduates.
Have the regions gained from the process?
The OECD project aimed to enhance partnership-building in the regions. The HEIs which participated in the review have reported a number of improvements springing from the review project. They include: closer participation of HEIs in the regional strategy process and implementation, generation of new funding streams from local businesses, stronger branding for the HEI(s) and the region, and greater impact on national policy.
This is how Per Fredriksson, the Director of University Outreach of Karlstad University and the Regional Coordinator of the Värmland review sees the situation:
The process takes time, but somehow we have managed to develop a common understanding of the way forward for the region. For the first time in many years also the enterprise formation in Värmland is positive. The reason for this can probably be debated (for ever…), but it is encouraging for all stakeholders in our joint process! What is quite clear is that the OECD review will be a cornerstone in renewing the Regional Growth Plan and work linked to the EU Structural Fund Program. We had a ‘re-start’ last December when we organised a seminar for the newly elected politicians.
No one-size-fits-all solutions
The review does not provide one-size-fits-all solutions. The final report will however point up important general issues that need to be considered by HEIs, their local and regional stakeholders and the national governments. The review also aimed to identify good practice and policy, and to share this information.
Initiatives to promote the ‘third task’ of serving the community are often not well integrated with the teaching and research functions that remain at the heart of the HEIs. It seems that some styles of learning and teaching are well geared to support regional development. In Aalborg University, Denmark, up to 50% of the study work is problem-oriented project work: students work in teams to solve problem areas which have often been defined in co-operation with firms, organisations and public institutions. At any one time there are 2,000 to 3,000 ongoing projects that ensure the university is engaged with the surrounding society.
HEIs and business innovation
HEIs can contribute to regional business innovation, for example, in four ways: they can contribute to the creation of a new industrial base via new business formation; they can upgrade the products, processes and services of established businesses via consultancy and advisory services; they can also diversify businesses into new sectors by the introduction of new products derived from research; and they can help to attract inward investment to the region by strengthening the skill base through local higher education institutions.
Creating new enterprises in knowledge-based industries is a way of diversifying a regional economy. The greatest gains can, however, arise from improving the competitiveness of existing businesses, especially small and medium sized enterprises which dominate most regional economies. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have great difficulties working with HEIs. First steps often need to be small ones, helping with the solution to a business or technology problem, and subsequently moving the enterprise into more innovative product/process/service development. To open the ‘black box’ of higher education, different types of entry points have been created in the regions. One of the oldest is Knowledge House.
Knowledge House
Established in 1995, Knowledge House is a joint effort of the five universities in the North-East of England along with the Open University in the North. It is an entry point to HEIs for SMEs, and helps companies access university skills, expertise and specialist resources. It offers expert solutions for developing ideas and solving problems through collaboration, consultancy, training and research. Knowledge House offers a cradle-to-grave service, stretching from the receipt and circulation of enquiries through project management and delivery to post-completion evaluation. It receives over 1,000 enquiries from client companies and delivers around 200 client contracts every year. Business growth averages 25%. The cumulative economic impact is more than £35 million, a six-fold return on the investment.
Most local industry links with higher education institutions, particularly with research-based universities, are in high technology sectors. The Castellon province of the autonomous region of Valencia in Spain provides an interesting example of a new university working together with traditional industry and SMEs. This co-operation has transformed the region into a global leader through improving the absorptive capacity of the region’s SME base.
Transforming the Ceramic Industry in Castellon, Valencia
University Jaune I has contributed to restructuring the traditional ceramic tile production cluster which comprises 500 businesses, mostly SMEs, employing 36,000 people. The links have been mediated by the Institute for Ceramic Technology (ITC), a not-for-profit association formed by an agreement between the University Institute for Ceramic Technology and the Ceramic Industry Research Association. The ITC provides access to the knowledge, skill and expertise of the university in purpose-built premises. It also provides quality certification tests for ceramic products – it is one of only nine laboratories in Europe with a similar service. The growth of the ceramic cluster has been supported by technology transfer, spin-outs and the upgrading of existing technologies. The partnership has enabled Valencia to become a global leader in the tile and ceramic industry.
Project wrap-up - the Regions in the Spotlight
The OECD project comes to an end in September 2007. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Fundacíon CYD have supported the project. The Ministry of Human Resources and Development in Korea and the City of Turku in Finland have also supported the project through secondments. The participants were not only HEIs but also their regions, including public authorities which are responsible for territorial and higher education development on a national and regional scale.
The selection included fourteen regions: nine from Europe, two each from Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, and one from North America. The regions ranged from rural to metropolitan and from peripheral to central. The higher education institutions included research-intensive universities, but also vocational and professionally oriented institutions. At the national level, the review embraced highly centralised as well as devolved governance systems. The fourteen regions that took part in the project are as follows:
Australia: Sunshine-Fraser Coast
Brazil: Northern Paraná
Canada: Atlantic Canada
Denmark: Jutland-Funen
Denmark/Sweden: Øresund
Finland: Jyväskylä region
Mexico: State of Nuevo León
The Netherlands: Twente
Norway: Trøndelag, The Mid-Norwegian Region
Korea: Busan metropolitan area
Spain: (two regions) The autonomous region of Valencia, and the Canary Islands
Sweden: Värmland
UK: The North-East Region of England
Review reports and more information are available on the web: www.oecd.org/edu/higher/regionaldevelopment
Concluding Conference:
Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged – higher education and regions 19-21 Sep 2007, Valencia www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/valencia
Richard Yelland is Head of the OECD Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education. Jaana Puukka is Analyst, OECD Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education.