Project:
HE Response to Regional Need : The Response of Higher Education Institutions to Regional Needs
From June 1998 to January 1999
Project Leader(s): John Goddard
Staff: Paul Chatterton
Sponsors: OECD
This project examines the transformations within universities as a response to
growing trends towards regionalisation of economic, social and political life.
The autonomous teaching and research activities of publicly funded
universities is coming under increasing pressure from governments and their
electorates. The agenda has moved on from a desire to simply increase the
general education level of the population and the output of scientific research;
there is now a greater concern to harness university education and research to
specific economic and social objectives.
Nowhere is this demand for specificity more clear than in the field of regional
development. While universities are located in regions, questions are being
asked about what contribution they make to the development of those regions?
Whilst it might be possible to identify passive impacts of universities in terms
of direct and indirect employment, how can the resources of universities be
mobilised to actively contribute to the development process? Such questions
are being posed because development has a strong territorial dimension - national
objectives can only be achieved by realising the full potential of constituent
sub-national units and in this regard universities in different regions are being
required to make a contribution. So the challenge addressed in this project is
how should higher education institutions respond to demands which are
emanating from a set of actors and agencies which have hitherto not sought
to engage in a dialogue, namely those concerned with regional development.
