20 April 2009
Why we need more collaboration between business and universities
I spoke recently at the Lord Stafford awards in Cambridge which was a very enjoyable evening and the first time they have been held in the East of England. The awards, which were first developed in 1997, ‘recognise and encourage the development of collaborative relationships between businesses and universities’. The Lord Stafford awards acknowledge a number of highly successful innovations that have come to fruition through joint working between companies and universities.
I’m sure I was invited to speak because of my long-term involvement with universities at a number of different levels including being on the Board of Governors of Anglia Ruskin University between 1988 and 2002 and for six of those years I was Chairman of the Board.
While I am aware that many businesses have already become involved with universities, I believe there’s still room for more to do so. In the housebuilding industry we went through a period some years ago when companies were either complaining about the quality of the graduates or about their training – and yet those employers had not involved themselves in helping to model university courses to suit their needs.
I believe we could do more to develop confident businessmen and women. Many degrees simply do not go far enough and both business and universities need to look seriously at this issue. Of course it’s not only those disciplines directly relating to one’s own business that matter; it’s very important to the wider economy that employers play a broader part in university education.
I was most encouraged to hear recently that, as part of a national pilot, Anglia Ruskin University has received £10million of funding for Employer Engagement. This is being used to pump prime innovative forms of partnership with employers and I understand it is attracting considerable attention in the Eastern region and creating new partnerships between business and the university.
The other very important area requiring attention is that some industries will have to think about remodelling. There is talk at the current time that, for example, the business model for house builders may never be the same again, and I don’t believe that we’re working hard enough at the moment to evolve a new model. There is something here, I believe, for the worlds of business and universities to come together to share their skills, experience and knowledge.
The current economic adversities are impacting on our universities just as they are on industry. Now more than ever we have to work together. I believe that universities and the business sector have got to co-operate in seeking ways of ensuring that graduates are not left unemployed. We can’t as a nation afford to waste this talent and we have to find ways to engage these graduates. Companies could take them on, maybe on a part-time basis, and they could perhaps use their spare time to do further training through their university. I also believe that there is a strong case for more secondment, with academics having periods of practical experience in industry and business, and business people having greater exposure to university teaching and research.
I believe that we have seriously to consider some changes in our culture and the way we live. We have moved into an era when the sustainability agenda is becoming increasingly important. I really think as far as the housebuilding industry is concerned that we are at the beginning of significant change. We have obviously got to do more than we already are to reduce CO² emissions. The zero/low carbon economy is going to be a huge challenge and we need innovative business models, products and lifestyle changes.
In this context the opportunity for new sustainable products and services is immense so there is a great opportunity for business and universities to carry out much more R&D together. Coaching, mentoring and education will also be a huge part of sustainability going forward which offers further opportunities for businesses and universities. Indeed, I believe that the education sector is integral to the communities that we are creating.
I summarised my speech by saying that despite the current economic conditions and the adverse impact being felt we must work together for a better tomorrow. We have to work our way through these times being confident that there will be a recovery and that economic conditions will improve, partly due to what we ourselves do today.
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