The University in its Place by John Brennan Allan Cochrane Yann Lebeau & Ruth Williams

Author:John Brennan, Allan Cochrane, Yann Lebeau & Ruth Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

4.5 Concluding Comments

The business strategies of universities reflect their own priorities—in practice. However, these often align with local and regional development priorities, whether because universities take advantage of the opportunities generated by them or because place and location present constraints on what is possible. The unintended (or unplanned) consequences of university activity on places and their regeneration may be as important as the planned or intended ones.

Despite the rhetoric to be found in many university mission statements, which often seems to imply that universities have some sort of disinterested commitment to regional and community development, in practice the driving force of university business strategies is generally much more instrumental. This is not to dismiss the significance of university mission statements and the well-meaning phrases contained in them, but merely to confirm that universities (like other businesses) are, above all, committed to finding ways of ensuring their own survival and reproduction. The drivers that determine university strategy relate to the search for ways of generating income whether from students, alumni, state bodies, charitable trusts and foundations, or elsewhere. Some (a very small number of) institutions do of course have other significant income streams (from property or investment activity) but that does not seem to have exempted them from the drive to find new ways of generating income from their teaching activities.

However, this does not mean that universities are somehow detached from the regions in which they are located. The importance of universities as actors in local and regional economies was acknowledged by the external stakeholders interviewed in the course of our research. In this context, business leaders tended to value the contribution senior university managers made to the development of wider skills strategies. It was clear in all the cases that there was a close and continuing set of relationships with the regions and urban areas within which they were located. In part these relationships can be seen as a direct expression of the business priorities of the universities: local and regional agencies may be sources of funding or, equally important, regulators whose decisions can open up or restrict opportunities for them. So, for example, in three of our cases, the universities drew directly on financial support from regional and local agencies to develop new campuses, launch new areas of curriculum and research development, or support mergers. In all of them, major property development initiatives relied on planning permission and in at least three the initiatives were underpinned by the commitment of local agencies to the university’s plans, as part of a wider strategic programme. In other words, one strong driver of university involvement in broader regional issues is that they can get something out of it.

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