Download - Dr Sue Brownlow Director
Dr Sue Brownlow
Director
Can Universities Benefit Rural Communities?
Harnessing the opportunity for Universities to drive smart specialisation in regional development
Kernow (Cornwall)A Quick Reminder
A land shaped by the powerful seas of the Atlantic
Communities shaped by land and sea
Culture rooted in an ancient past
Communities that celebrate new cultural opportunities
A business base with the confidence to seek global commercial markets
Statistically Speaking
It would be easy to simply give this picture of a beautiful region, confident and full of opportunities
But this would not be a complete picture, and statistics point to pressing needs and an economy still lagging and lacking all the skills needed to help it grow and
catch up with the rest of the UK and Europe
Our Economic prosperitymeasured by GDP per Capita
Our economic prosperity, measured per person, shows that we still significantly lag the European average
UK average of £28,700 per capita
SW UK average of £26,100 per capita
EU average of £25,100 per capita
Cornwall average of £18,700 per capita
35% below the UK average25% below the EU average
17,000
18,000
19,000
20,000
21,000
22,000
23,000
24,000
25,000
26,000
27,000
28,000
29,000
UK SW Cwll
Series1
Our Skills base
While our skill levels are up with National figures for levels one, two and three, it is advanced skills where Cornwall shows the greatest
deficit
Percentage of working age population in 2008 with level 4+ skills (graduate level)
UK overall has 29.9% Level 4+ skillsS. West UK has 29.2 % Level 4+ skills
Cornwall averages 24.2% Level 4+ skills
Cornwall lags the rest of the UK by nearly 20%
That’s more than 15,000 graduates missing from the workforce
20.00%
21.00%
22.00%
23.00%
24.00%
25.00%
26.00%
27.00%
28.00%
29.00%
30.00%
UK South West Cornwall
Series1
Our Performance in Knowledge Intensive Sectors (KIS)
• The Proportion of all employment in private sector KIS is 17.9%, the second lowest of all the Local Enterprise Partnership regions in the UK in June 2010
• At an annual growth rate of 45.5%, Cornwall has the fastest rate of growth (half as much again as the next fastest) in KIS of all the Local Enterprise Partnership regions in June 2010
Can Universities Benefit Rural Communities?
Our view in CUC is that they can
The previous two UNICREDS conferences have started to define how geography,
community and politics contribute to shaping the Higher Education driven economic
opportunities in any region
The UNICREDS model develops triple helix thinking
A framework for CUC’s achievements
SMART specialisation
Triple Helix
UNIVERSITIES
GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY
A do-able task for HE delivery partners
Relevant to the
local economy
Fits with National and International growth areas
UNIVERSITIES
GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY
CUC’s JOURNEY
Objective One
Building capacity
£100 million + Investment into general University Infrastructure
Taking the risk
Convergence
Smart Specialisation
£100 million + investment into specialised facilities for helping the growth of knowledge intensive business in Cornwall
Embedding the benefits
WARNING
GOVERNMENT“we observe a definite tendency in Europe for
countries and regions to do the same thing and envisage their future in a similar fashion……leaving Europe with a collection of sub-critical systems, all
doing more or less the same thing”
“Government’s challenge should not be to direct us in what to do but to encourage us to discover what to do. The search for SMART specialisation needs to come
through entrepreneurs, firms and universities”.
Dominique Foray, EURADA, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
INDUSTRY/ PRIVATE SECTOR
The private sector in leading regions may have the critical mass to set aims to be
inventive at the technological frontiers in General Purpose Technologies (for example, such as biotechnology, information
technology, nanotechnology etc).
More likely, in remote, peripheral, economically challenged regions such as those in partnership in
UNICREDS, our private sector will aim to invest in the invention or development of applications of a
General Purpose Technology in the important domains of our regional economies.
UNIVERSITIES
Initially there needs to be a certain degree of faith, based on evidence of the past, that Universities and
Higher Education can provide a flexible basis for providing original research and new knowledge that
can fuel new economic growth
When such an understanding has been reached and Higher Education has been embedded in a region as an
economic growth driver, there needs to be a mutual process of recognition (i.e. by the supply as well as the
demand) of the ability of HEI’s to perform in the specialised domains emerging as priorities for the
regional economy.
A framework for CUC’s achievements
SMART specialisation
A do-able task for HE delivery partners
Relevant to the
local economy
Fits with National and International growth areas
UNIVERSITIES
GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY
The following CUC examples illustrate how Cornwall has harnessed the opportunity for Universities to drive SMART specialisation
in its regional development utilising
• High Speed Internet information technology
• Renewable Energy technology
• Processes to help the private (and voluntary) sector
capitalise on graduate skills
High speed internet and Digital Media
One focus of University College Falmouth is Digital Media
A small cluster of digital media companies is already growing and are supported in Cornwall with high speed internet (Information Technology) as a structural facilitator of further growth
Europe 2020 highlights “a digital agenda for Europe to speed up the roll out of high speed internet” as one of its flagship targets and the new Cornwall Local
Enterprise Partnership which has evolved from The UK Government’s National Reform Programme , has the development of high speed internet (Next
Generation Broadband) as one of its top priorities
Digital Media Skills at Shelterbox - video
Resource Efficient Europe and Wave Energy
One focus of The University of Exeter’s new Environment and Sustainability Institute is marine renewable energy
A device (wave hub) has already been deployed offshore from Cornwall to focus and facilitate business growth and supporting research & development in the marine renewable sector
Europe 2020 highlights “support for the shift towards a low carbon economy, increase the use of renewable energy sources…” as one of its flagship targets while Nationally, The South West Region of the UK has been designated as a Low Carbon Economic Area for marine energy, as part of the UK's Low Carbon Industrial Strategy.
Agenda for New Skills and Jobs and Unlocking Cornish Potential
CUC Institutions work together through the “Unlocking Cornish Potential” scheme to match, place and support skilled graduates in jobs in Cornwall
As part of the scheme, mentors are employed from leading local enterprises to ensure that knowledge is effectively transferred into the local economy
Europe 2020 highlights the need to “modernise labour markets and empower people by development of their skills …” and the UK Commission for employment and skills “Ambition for 2020” report states “our prosperity depends on the success of our economy. That depends on the jobs we are able to create: and having the skilled workforce we need to do them – and do them well”
New Skills & Unlocking Cornish Potential at “Fifteen” - video
CONCLUSIONSCan Universities benefit Regional economies?
Yes they can and having faith in this is the first step:
UNICREDS partners now have evidence to back this up, which wasn’t available when we started out
What strategic approaches help us to achieve such benefits?
In terms of research and innovation, using SMART specialisation is a way forward:
Find the specialisms where the local economy can respond to national and EU high growth opportunities, and where HE growth is feasible and sustainable
What are the caveats?
To achieve benefits requires:
mutual understanding of Business and Higher Education sectors
flexibility to deliver to local as well as national and EU priorities
Thank You
Meur ras
www.cuc.ac.uk