Briefing Paper 12

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Observatory PASCAL
Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions PASCAL UNIVERSITIES REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT PROJECT (PURE) PURE Briefing Paper No. 12 Project Timeline
Summary of the main issues considered at the Vancouver Workshop 21 May 2009 and the required actions arising
This note is addressed to all those in regions participating in the PURE Project Cohort 1, and particularly to the Link Person for each region, along with Regional Coordinating Group members and members of CDGs. It is copied for information to others associated with the PURE Network, including prospective 2nd cohort participants.
Detailed Action Required by Regions in June 2009
1. Link Person to reconvene or otherwise consult with Regional Consultative Groups to agree on the form of their ongoing work.
2. (Further) review the Region’s Regional Visit Report (RVR1) and the lines of action and development it suggests; correspondence with CDG leader and Glasgow office as needed.
3. Choose sub-clusters using attached template, to submit to Glasgow office.
4. Draft an Action Plan, to submit to the Glasgow office and share with other participating regions by the end of June.
5. Decide how to (continue to) test, use and report on the HEIs and Regions benchmarking tools.
6. Identify possible case studies of good practice to develop as part of a PURE compendium during 2010.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Project Timeline By 30 June 2009 PURE sub-clusters are established. Regions prepare and submit their draft Action Plans covering the period to the end of 2010. From July 2009      Work in the Regions proceeds on Action Plans, in liaison with the Glasgow PURE office and chosen subclusters using GotoMeeting tool as needed. HEIs and Regions benchmarking tools are trialled and used within plan schedules. Periodic contact and information exchange with the Region’s CDG and the Glasgow office. Possible examples of Good Practice considered and where appropriate drafted in outline. Sub-cluster leaders identified and sub-cluster meetings scheduled.
September 2009 onwards    PURE second cohort begins - three to six Regions doing preparatory work. With CDG visits completed if possible by the end of February, in time to join the PURE Workshop in Paris or Brussels in March-April 2010. Where appropriate new cohort 2 Regions join established Cohort 1 specialised sub-clusters.
November 2009 - end of February 2010    Second round of CDG visits to Cohort 1 regions. 2nd round visits to include consideration of ‘Good Practice’ case studies for compilation into an integrated manual. Written summaries of outcomes of benchmarking exercise prepared and sent to Glasgow office in preparation for Paris workshop.
Glasgow PURE office    Advises dates and details of the next (two-day) PURE Workshop (at OECD Paris or in Brussels). Provides periodic news updates to all regions including 2nd cohort. Analyses and synthesises the results of work following the Vancouver Workshop and especially from the 2nd CDG visits (the RVR2s) ahead of the 2010 Spring Workshop.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions March or April 2010    PURE two-day Workshop systematically reviews progress and plans, region by region and Project-wide, for the Jamtland Conference and associated PURE meeting in June 2010; Progress report and comparison of processes and learning with the 2nd cohort. Brainstorm sessions: o o progress review and closer consideration of Benchmarking tools and their further use; proposed Project synthesis report and other Project outcomes at the end of 2010 (Gaborone Botswana Pascal International Conference December 2010).
June 2010     Pascal Jamtland International Conference and associated PURE Workshop. Report and review on overall Project progress and on benchmarking, glossary of keywords, and other ‘coregeneric’ issues such as ‘the region’, HEI management for 3rd mission, and the role of central government. Outline frameworks for summary reports by each Region to be included in the Project synthesis report by December 2010. Outline framework for PURE Project synthesis report for December 2010.
From July 2010      Work on the 1st cohort Action Plans, benchmarking etc, continues; 2nd cohort Regions proceed to prepare, share and start work on Action Plans. Visit 2 by CDG to cohort 2 regions to be completed by October 2010. Meeting of all regions - Gaborone in conjunction with PASCAL conference and end of cohort 1 (Dec 2010). RVR2s for each cohort 2 region produced (March 2011). Synthesis report for cohort 2 regions taking into account cohort 1 synthesis report (June 2011).
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Brief Note on the Vancouver Workshop and Some Key Issues Arising These notes are for the interest of PURE participants unable to get to Vancouver, including prospective 2nd cohort regions, and also as an aide memoire to those who took part. Some 45 people took part on the Workshop at Vancouver on 21 May that followed the stimulating 18-20 May Pascal Conference on the Third Mission of Universities attended by some 150 people. The Conference included a Plenary Panel session featuring four PURE regions, Gaborone, Melbourne, Thames Gateway and Varmland, as well as several concurrent sessions led by people involved in the PURE regions and informed by the Project. Reports on the remaining PURE regions and discussion of progress so far took up much of the morning of the Workshop the next day. Thirteen of the 15 Cohort 1 regions were directly represented at the Conference and Workshop, though some participants had to leave before the end of the Workshop which ran for a very full day. All regions had at least two people at the Workshop from either the Region or the CDG; most has several. The Workshop was thus strongly anchored in the work, needs and ideas of the Regions. It strengthened what promises to be a significant ongoing network of learning regions. The diversity of Regions was evident. Size ranges from almost ten million people down to less that 200,000, with a similarly wide range in geographical size. Regions range in character: from the whole of the small and very poor country of Lesotho, to large economically advanced and complex city regions, to low-population rural and remote areas centred on one regional town and facing problems of ageing and depopulation. Their higher education varies between a single university, perhaps linked to some mainly non-higher college level provision, and complicated multi-university and college systems including institutions only partly in the region but contributing to it. They range also from small multi-purpose regionally focused HEIs to powerful research-led universities keenly interested in world league tables. For all the diversity, strong common interests were evident, as summarised in PURE BP 11 and reflected in the sub-cluster interests that are taken up for PURE action in this 12th BP. Some themes such as mega-events remain of interest but seem less likely to result in formal sub-clusters. Some will be better handled across the whole PURE project, such as the character and functionality of regions, HEI management for ‘3rd mission’ engagement, and the role and influencing of central governments. Workshop sessions attempted to firm up and prioritise some sub-clusters. They reflected on the nature and dynamics of regions, their change and development; discussed the use and ultimate wider adoption of the two benchmarking tools; reported on interest in a 2nd PURE cohort of regions expected to begin work in the latter part of 2009; and discussed steps to be taken to carry the Project forward to a Spring meeting in Paris or Brussels. The Workshop was followed by a wine and cheese farewell gathering. This was hosted at the University of British Columbia by Hans Schuetze, Garnet Grosjean and Maxine Adams, who thus completed the gracious and high quality hospitality, which was a mark of the whole Pascal Conference and PURE Workshop.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Regional Participation in Sub-Clusters and Draft Action Plan This simple Template is designed to enable Regions to identify Sub-Clusters and to decide on their regional participation. Please return it to the PURE Glasgow office by Friday 26 June at the latest. It also asks for your (Draft) Action Plan for the Region’s participation in the PURE Project. Note that this can be revised subsequently in the light of further discussion and experience. However, it is desirable for each Region to have a sense of what other Regions hope to achieve through the Project. This will help in understanding our different approaches and circumstances, and thus help Regions to learn more from and compare better with one another throughout the life of the Project. Please therefore do not be hesitant in providing a Plan; you can change it later if need be. These possible sub-cluster themes reflect Regions’ expressions of interest and apparent balance across a long and complex set of themes. If you feel that the way they are now summarised does not include an important interest for your Region, please add this below. If other Regions nominate likewise, such a Sub-cluster can then be included.      
Green skills and jobs (as a sharp focus for sustainable development interests). Tertiary systems (focusing on short cycle higher education, VET (higher vocational education and training) and progression). Regional innovation and renewal (SMEs, RIS {regional innovation systems}). Creative and cultural industries. Social inclusion and active citizenship (with a focus on all or any of youth, 3rd age, immigrants, and including demographic changes). Sustaining rural and remote regions, communities and hinterlands (perhaps including e.g. brain drain, (eco-) tourism).
Note the suggestion at Vancouver that some ‘generic’ issues, notably the role of central governments, the nature of ‘regions’, the learning city-region, and the management of HEIs to strengthen engagement, be treated as Project-wide rather than trough sub-clusters. Regions with a keen interest in the learning region should consult the Norman Longworth annex to the Puglia RVR on the PURE Website.
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Regional Participation in Sub-Clusters
1. Name of the Region and Person responsible for returning this form: ............................................................................................................................................................... 2. This Region would like to take part in [insert total number] PURE sub-clusters: ............................................................................................................................................................... 3. This Region would like to take part in PURE sub-clusters as follows. Please enter the sub-clusters names in their order of priority for you. Include as many as you wish: ............................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................... 4. If any of these does not run, then this Region would be interested to join a sub-cluster on (in order): ............................................................................................................................................................... ...............................................................................................................................................................
Prioritising is necessary in case not all the themes attract enough participants to proceed. In this case you may wish to be included instead in a ‘reserve’ theme sub-cluster.
5. This Region would be willing to act as Sub-cluster lead-coordinator for the following Sub-cluster(s): ............................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................... 6. Name of Sub-cluster(s): ............................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................................... 7. Name of person(s) who will take the lead coordinating role in liaison with the PURE support office and person: ............................................................................................................................................................... ...............................................................................................................................................................
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Place Management, Social Capital and Learning Regions Notes: The sub-clusters named above are based on Regions’ initial expressions of interest in their Profiles, Briefing Papers and in the RVR1s, supplemented by the Sub-Clusters session during the Vancouver Workshop. Some themes attracted keener interest than others at Vancouver, and Region representatives nominated over lunch for one or another sub-cluster. These ‘nominations’ are not included here. One reason is that most Regions wish to take part in two or more cluster themes, and that degree of comparison and choice was not possible in the time available in Vancouver. Secondly, Regions may not wish to be held to a decision taken in haste and alone, without the opportunity to reflect and to discuss with the CDG. Thirdly, not all Regions were able to be represented in that discussion, which is seen as formative of the choice of cluster themes rather than prescriptive. It was suggested at Vancouver that each Sub-cluster be led or ‘convened’ by one Region, supported by a Pascal affiliate / PURE administrator in one of the three Pascal ‘node’ offices, in Glasgow, Melbourne or Northern Illinois. Possible Sub-Clusters (to be finalised by theme name, membership and convenor by the end of June 2009).
Please add anything else that you wish to about the Sub-clusters, including themes, processes and intended outcomes, for your Region or generally.
Region PURE Action Plan Please provide, briefly and in your own words and way (in descriptive text, note or bullet form, however you prefer), the Region’s current hoped for Action Plan to cover the eighteen month period from 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2010. Please note that we are for the time being restricting this to the 18 months remaining for the contract period of PURE Project of Cohort 1. It is evident that with a 2nd and possible subsequent cohorts following, the Project will extend beyond 2010. Your Region may wish to continue taking part in the Project if it seems useful to you. For the moment however we would like to focus just on 2009-2010.
Chris Duke PURE Academic Director May 30 2009
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