North West Universities.
BY DR RACHEL ECKERSLEY, NWUA
OVER recent years, the UK Government has progressively introduced initiatives to widen the remit of universities beyond the traditional activities of teaching and research. Particular emphasis has been placed upon the 'third mission' activity of reaching out to business and communities, and to widening participation in higher education beyond the usual community of entrants. Since 1998 it has made £50m a year available to fund third mission activity and English universities, including those in the North West region, have responded by embarking on a variety of commercial ventures, community projects, and services for business. During 1999-2000, 199 spin-off companies (from English universities' research activity) were created compared with 338 in the previous five years. The Higher Education Funding Council now proposes to articulate four 'core' activities for higher education institutions (HEIs): teaching, research, widening participation and reach out.

After years of significant under-funding, the HE sector has benefited from increased governmental support, often in the form of funded initiatives around the new agendas. More recently, the increases in the science budget, announced in the recent Spending Review, have been welcomed within and without the North West. These increases indicate that the Government is seriously committed to investment in science in order to ensure that UK universities can compete on the international stage. What is unclear from the Spending Review, however, is the degree to which it will support student-related activity (primarily teaching), widening participation (through the proposed Partnerships for Progression Initiative), research in non-science based subjects and business interaction. In addition, the present arrangement for research funding perpetuates the unequal division between regions; the bulk of research funding going to the South East of a line drawn from the Wash to the Severn Estuary. As a consequence, North West universities and HE colleges are looking to the HE White Paper, due in autumn 2002, for clarification on these issues.

Clearly, the 50 per cent participation target (of 18-30 year olds in HE by 2010) set by the Government demonstrates that it recognises both the need for a highly-skilled workforce and the essential role played by the HE sector in its creation. But reaching this target will require substantial funds for teaching and the establishment of word-class educational facilities. In certain English regions, the North West included, the net loss of students and of graduate first destinations, combined with a lower than average participation of young people in HE, means that these areas face a significant challenge to overcome the skills shortage and meet the 50 per cent target. Third Mission activity and widening participation in, and access to HE is, therefore, of increasing importance to HEIs in the North West.

None the less, HEIs in the North West have long played a key role in supporting regional economic development and recent government initiatives are viewed as an acknowledgement of their significant contribution. North West HEIs are big businesses. Collectively, they have a combined annual turnover of over £1.3b, produce 50,000 graduates annually, and employ 26,000 staff. Total expenditure by staff, students and institutions themselves in the region is estimated to be £3.1b per annum, and an estimated 10,000 additional jobs are created as a 'knock-on' effect of HE activity. North West universities win over £90m from the funding councils for research and £150m additional income from research grants and contracts. External capital investment in R & D is a significant resource for the region.

Established in 1999, the North West Universities Association (NWUA) aims to foster collaboration between its ten members and regional partners for the benefit of higher education and the North West economy. The creation and evolution of NWUA has enabled the universities of the North West to co-operate in working closely with industry and regional agencies, including Government Office North West (GO-NW), North West Regional Assembly (NWRA), Regional Chambers of Commerce, the Regional CBI, the NW Business Leadership Team and the North West Development Agency (NWDA). The association acts to ensure that wherever possible regional development policy takes into account the views of higher education.

Facilitating collaborative projects and bids is also part of NWUA's remit and two ongoing projects are specifically aimed at increasing, and improving upon university-industry relationships. A HEROBC (Higher Education Reach Out to Business and the Community) award of £550,000 over four years has enabled NWUA to set up its flagship project, KnowledgeNorthWest, a regional portal linking business with North West universities' expertise. The website, www.KnowledgeNorthWest.com, was launched in November 2001 and offers a free enquiry service, which can also be accessed via e-mail, fax or telephone. During its six-month pilot phase, enquiries ranged from specific requests for information about specialist fabrics to market research, and 70 per cent of these received one or more response from North West HEIs.

In addition, the NWUA endorsed, joint universities Master of Enterprise degree is directed at Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) Executives. Pioneered by a consortium comprising Bolton Institute, University of Central Lancashire, Liverpool John Moores University, the Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, the MEnt is based on the principle of Action Learning. It will first enable SMEs to satisfy their business improvement needs and then leads onto a mastery of enterprise as a total concept. A spin-off from the MEnt programme is 'Action Enterprise', a web-based enterprise programme for 14-25 year olds. North West HEIs also have particular strengths in management training, including training for national and multi-national companies (based on research of international excellence), SMEs and the public sector.

Importantly, the strategic alignment of research expertise and regional economic priorities can lever in significant levels of investment and funding, and North West HEIs have become adept at maximising funding opportunities to develop projects with multiple benefits. The HE sector believes that this has been a successful feature of the Regional Strategy (2020) and is working with NWDA to develop the research base necessary to support and enhance the competitiveness of key sectors of the North West economy, for example, via University Innovation Centres, Technology Foresight Centres and academic clusters. On behalf of its members, NWUA is currently involved in the Regional Strategy review process.

The formation of 'academic clusters' will promote greater interaction between the North West HE sector and specific industrial sectors identified in the Regional Strategy. Although NWUA has forged effective links with industry-led sector groups (supported by NWDA) by identifying lead academics for each priority sector, this approach has had its limitations. A single academic cannot speak for the whole academic community in a specific subject, nor do academic subjects easily map on to industrial sectors. Instead, clusters will include a broad range of academic expertise to permit more effective communication with industrial sectors, build up critical mass and open up new areas of research, particularly those at the boundaries of traditional disciplines. The model favours multi-disciplinary collaboration, especially those subjects outside science and technology, such as management. Clusters may involve colleagues at separate institutions in the North West or in different departments within a single university.

It is recognised, however, that only a small percentage of SMEs routinely access HE expertise and benefit from technology and knowledge transfer. Although HEIs in the North West have been particularly active in the commercialisation of research via company formation, licences and incubation, larger-scale business and science parks are also designed to attract new spin-in/SME companies. Increasingly, undergraduate courses include work placements or project work with local SMEs, not least because the traditional sandwich year-out in industry or abroad is losing popularity (due to financial constraints on students). TCS (formerly Teaching Company Schemes), where recent graduates work on specific R&D projects in a local SME under the joint supervision of the HEI and placement company, also helps develop HE/SME relations, as well as the business skills of the student. Augmenting all this activity, the North West Students and Graduates Online (NWSAGO, www.nwstudentandgraduate.ac.uk), a regional collaborative HE initiative, provides a single integrated online service for businesses, students and graduates in the region.

The provision of graduate career opportunities and career progression is, however, largely outside the control of the HE sector. Economic growth and development, especially of new and emerging sectors, is the key to improving graduate attraction combined with an improved quality of life in the region. North West HEIs, therefore, view third mission activity as a complement to the 'core business' of teaching and research, which will continue to need substantial government funding in order to maintain standards, produce skilled graduates and ensure that anyone who can benefit from HE is able to do so.

References: 'More to third mission than counting pounds', THES, 9 August 2002 p. 12. 'Measuring the Economic Impact of HE in the North West Region' unpublished article, Centre for Urban Policy Studies, The University of Manchester, August 2002 p. 'Measuring EI', p. 24.

NWUA members are Bolton Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, the Manchester Metropolitan University, the Open University in the North West, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, the University of Salford, UMIST, University of Central Lancashire and University of Lancaster.

Further information on NWUA:
, Executive Director
www.nwua.co.uk or www.nwua.ac.uk