The latest issue of the Journal of Adult and Continuing Education [2] (JACE 17.1) has just been published, and includes articles by PASCAL board members and associates.
A number of the pieces deal with some aspect of universities and their regional engagement. The article from Julia Preece [3] provides an analysis on how the National University of Lesotho, in one of world’s ‘least developed countries’ is interpreting the concept of community service when faced with huge financial constraints and challenging international development targets. It makes some tentative observations for future policy orientation in the light of preliminary findings from a university audit and stakeholder discussions carried out under the aegis of the the PASCAL Universities Regional Engagement (PURE) project that assessed regional engagement in four continents (Duke 2010). She concludes that universities in developing country contexts should embrace the community service mission in order to justify increased funding support.
Bruce Wilson [4] also draws on work from PURE which involves nineteen regions in various parts of the world as well as from prior OECD (2007) work on universities and regional development. His article reviews efforts to understand better the ways in which universities contribute to regional development, before considering specifically some of the issues that arise in relation to social inclusion. He highlights a central tension, the resolution of which might inform both regional and national policy initiatives, and practical efforts by universities.
Chris Duke [5], a man with many hats and chairs, is the Academic Director of PURE, and in his contribution focuses on the nature and effect of public controversy about impact of Higher Education in the UK, as expressed in Times Higher Education Supplement over a recent two-year period. He argues that the ‘defensive positions taken by some opponents of impact assessment may damage universities’ capacity to behave as responsible regional citizens, and weaken the wider community’s support for universities that is needed for their public funding, helping to precipitate what critics fear’.
The issue is completed by Lynn Parker and Ruth Williams who report on the Higher Education and Regional Transformation (HEART) project funded within a major programme of research by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), focusing the economic impact of universities on their regions (see http://www.impact-hei.ac.uk/ [6]). They explore specifically the effects that universities have on the social and cultural lives of their local and regional communities. In particular, their work focused on the impact of universities on socially disadvantaged and excluded groups, typically those segments of the population living in the most deprived areas and those belonging to lower socio-economic groups.
For more information on this issue of JACE, contact the editor Michael Osborne [7].
References
Duke, C. (2010) PASCAL Interim Synthesis Report on the PURE Project 2009-10 [8].
OECD (2007) Higher Education and Regions – Globally Competitive, Locally Engaged [9].