News - Partnerships in Education Are Key to Improving Regional Economies
Cornwall Led UNICREDS Project Holds Conference in Bulgaria
The European UNICREDS project, led by Cornwall Council, has taken a further step forward this week with a successful key conference looking at how different models of higher education can benefit regional economic development.
Delegates attended the first UNICREDS event of 2011 this week, which took place in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, from places including Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Scotland and Cornwall. Participants from Cornwall and the Combined Universities of Cornwall were able to promote the success of their innovative Higher Education partnership and learn from the experiences of other regions.
UNICREDS is a 2million euro project majority funded by the EU in addition to co-financing from each of the 15 European partners. All the regions involved with UNICREDS share similar characteristics relative to the rest of their countries, such as distance from major cities, population demographics, and reliance on declining traditional industries. UNICREDS partners share real life experiences and knowledge of how the challenges of an underperforming economy can be overcome and how deprived or peripheral regions can be transformed into centres of excellence in research and innovation. The project includes partners at different stages of the journey towards solving these problems.
Representing Cornwall, and one of the key-note speakers for the event, was Nicolas Wallet, Project Manager for UNICREDS. He said:
"One of the key challenges facing universities today is coming to terms with their changing role in society. Universities, as major creators of scientific and technical knowledge, must be more deeply involved in the region they operate and develop a sense of awareness about, and responsibility for, contributing with real and novel solutions to real, local problems.
"By talking to local companies, a university can develop courses that give students the skills that are needed on the job - creating employable graduates and providing industry with the competence to move forward and to grow, generating additional jobs in the longer term. The leadership of public authority is also needed, and could incentivise universities to make regional development an attractive part of their central business, such as widening access to higher education or engaging with SMEs.
"UNICREDS is challenging the supremacy of the traditional university model and looking into the potential benefits that higher and further education partnerships can offer - where several different providers work in partnership, pooling resources to reach new types of student and to develop collaborative research centres. Swedish examples prove that such partnerships are successful in gathering the critical mass of funds to go forward with research and innovation that ultimately benefits a region's economic development."
A leading Swedish academic on the topic of educational and business partnerships is Johan Sterte, Vice-Chancellor of Luleå University of Technology. He spoke at the event about his first-hand experience of a partnership between a university, the municipalities and the business world in the north part of Sweden. He said:
"It is of great value that regions with similar problems and possibilities work together to identify problems and to find solutions that will promote regional development. We all have a lot to learn from each other. "This conference is an important part of this process. It will give ample opportunities both for sharing experiences and for discussion."
The overall aim of UNICREDS is to understand the role universities play in economic development alongside the traditional role of education and degree supply. It examines the 'triple helix' approach to partnerships between universities, business and the public sector, and explores current and new ways of collaborating with a view to aiding knowledge transfer and building understanding of how universities can influence the economic development of underperforming regions. UNICREDS is ultimately looking to develop a transferable model for future education and regional development programmes that can be adopted by the European Commission.
Talking about the importance for Cornwall of this UNICREDS conference, Carolyn Rule, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration at Cornwall Council, said: "Working in partnership is key to the economic development of our regions and this is well demonstrated by the Combined Universities in Cornwall partnership. The Council is pleased to have facilitated this event which has given Cornwall the opportunity to develop partnership potential to ensure maximum economic benefit for the County."
Nigel Hewitt, Combined Universities in Cornwall Coordinator, who attended on behalf of the CUC partnership, said: "In the first months of the project we have reviewed the sorts of underlying analyses that communities in regions might need to make in order to determine whether development of higher education can play a part in achieving the community's goals for the region's sustainability. The conference in Sofia has taken a look at the opportunities for partnerships in regions and how such possibilities might shape the choice of model of higher education, that will be the most effective and efficient for the region's needs. We are also beginning the process of looking at how we can convert the potential benefits that HE delivery offer regions into reality. This is where actual case studies such as Combined Universities in Cornwall can exemplify successful knowledge transfer processes for others to share."
The findings from the Sofia conference and the related research are expected to be delivered in June this year when a comprehensive report will be delivered to the UNICREDS team as part of the conference being held in Scotland, along with best practice findings and policy recommendations. These will be added to the findings from the other five conferences taking place over the three year lifespan of the project.
UNICREDS is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund along with each of the 15 partners and made possible by the INTERREG IVC programme.
More information is available at www.unicreds.eu.