NEWS RELEASE
Universities’ economic role is “elephant in the corner”, says Abertay principal
28 November 2008
The role of Scotland’s universities in promoting economic growth is an “elephant in the corner” that public agencies and private bodies are “alarmingly” confused about, according to one of Scotland’s most senior academics.
Professor Bernard King, speaking at the University of Abertay Dundee’s graduation ceremony today (Friday, 28 November), cited the report of the Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities, published in July.
The report recommended that universities should be recognised as the seventh key industrial sector in the Government’s Economic Strategy – alongside Creative Industries; Energy; Financial and Business Services; Food and Drink; Life Sciences, and Tourism.
Professor King said this proposal was “crucial” to helping achieve the Government’s economic growth targets, and “potentially…..a huge advantage to Scotland in recovering from recession and building a sustainable economic future.
“But,” he went on, “there’s an elephant in the room which neither the Scottish Funding Council, nor Scottish Enterprise, nor the Royal Society of Edinburgh nor the Committee of Chairs of Scottish Higher Education Institutions seem willing to acknowledge:
“What does it actually mean for universities to be, in the words of the Taskforce report, ‘explicitly recognised as a key sector of the Scottish economy’. How are we going to incentivise universities to help grow GDP as we do businesses in the other six sectors?”
Professor King quoted the responses to the Taskforce report submitted by the organisations he named.
Scottish Enterprise questioned the wisdom of classifying universities as the seventh key sector, while the Royal Society of Edinburgh had claimed that there was no evidence of a direct link between public funding of research and economic prosperity.
The Committee of Chairs had said “while it is not the purpose of universities to fix the economy, without them the economy cannot be fixed” – a position which Professor King described as “sitting firmly on the fence”.
“Most surprising of all,” Professor King continued, “the Scottish Funding Council response to the Taskforce report makes no reference at all to the idea of classifying universities as the seventh key sector of the economy. Given that it would be partly the Funding Council’s responsibility to translate the report into action, the omission of any reference at all seems somewhat bizarre!
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time in the UK that anyone has proposed harnessing the resources of universities so closely to achieving national economic objectives,” he added.
(ends)
NOTES FOR EDITORS
In July, the Joint Future Thinking Taskforce on Universities published its draft report. The Taskforce had been set up to examine the future role and shape of Scotland’s university sector in the wake of an argument over public funding and the underfunding so clearly recognised by universities. The report doesn’t fully resolve that issue, but it is a major step forward nonetheless.
It proposes a major modernisation of the relationship between universities, Government, and the Scottish Funding Council. The proposals cover funding, governance, decision-making and strategy-setting, collaboration, and research and teaching. Most importantly, it tackles the contribution universities could and should make to economic growth, in the context of the Scottish paradox of a comparatively highly skilled workforce, but poor productivity and sluggish innovation and knowledge transfer.
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