A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the Oxford-Cambridge Arc Universities Group, “Stronger Together: Challenges of devolved regional economic development”, by AUG Director Alistair Lomax, explores the critical role universities play in driving regional growth, innovation, and collaboration.
The new Government at Westminster is placing emphasis on economic growth, devolution and local empowerment. A new paper from the Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) and the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, Stronger Together: Challenges of devolved regional economic development(HEPI Report 178) by Alistair Lomax, considers the role that groups of universities might play in delivering this.
The paper considers the role of university collaborative groupings and how they interact with other groups, such as pan-regional partnerships and private sector boards.
Some universities are organised into coherent groupings that, largely speaking, have a remit that runs deeper than any regional economic development agenda and these are seen by others as pivotal to the science and technology agenda.
As well as characterising what is happening in England, the paper looks at models from other countries that might hold lessons.
Professor Dame Karen Holford, Vice-Chancellor and CEO, Cranfield University, which is the host institution for the Arc Universities group, and Chair of Midlands Innovation, said:
“UK universities play a critical role in regional economic growth acting as magnets for investment and innovation. When we join forces and work together around our areas of expertise in technology, research, and skills we can speak with one voice and forge strong regional alliances with business and local authorities. With the arrival of a new Government, this report is timely and valuable – universities need to be ready to collaborate and contribute to the opportunities that any further regional devolution will bring.”
In his Foreword to the Report, Professor Alistair Fitt, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and Chair of the Arc Universities Group, writes:
“Collaborating is a key part of what universities do. Universities approach regional collaboration in ways that are consistent with their independent nature: largely self-determined, self-funded, self-organised and self-governed. It is perhaps inevitable that good working arrangements and alliances have formed between university groupings, and others. It is they who will provide the skills base of the future and play a major role with industry in innovation, in stimulating sustainable economic growth and in tackling net zero challenges.”
Alistair Lomax, author of the report, said:
“The language that is in use around regional economic partnership is interesting. We talk about weaving, knitting or stitching the pieces together. It is true that so many of these ‘pieces’ exist, but they have emerged and become strong not in response to any strategy from government, but through self-determinism and a belief in partnership working.”
When, during a recent conference on whether the UK needs a new industrial strategy, the Chair, Professor Greg Clark CBE, asked hundreds of attendees to identify the single most enduring scientific superpower advantage in the UK. The resulting word cloud word had one word ten times larger than any other: ‘universities’.
The report has three recommendations:
1. The new Government, in its formulation of a new industrial strategy, should plan for at least five years and look towards an impact over 50 years, promoting the strength in applied R&D and innovation alongside local and regional capabilities. Due prominence should be given to the ingenuity and strength of the university sector, using every lever and mechanism (fiscal incentives, enterprise zones, matched funding, alignment of funding agencies and the like) to encourage greater collaboration and partnership.
2. University leadership should embrace the full impact they can have on other regional partners through their convening power both within region and internationally, performing a prominent and vocal role in trade missions and acting as champions.
3. Universities should build much deeper linkages with other regional partners, with a particular effort towards engagement with those who hold the greatest devolved powers, such as some of the new mayors.
For further information, please contact Alistair Lomax, Director, Arc Universities Group:
07884-196423
