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