Brief report on the half-day PURE working session within the Gabarone Conference

The whole of the final morning of the PASCAL International Conference in Gabarone was given over to a consideration of the work of the PASCAL Universities and Regional Engagement (PURE) Project.

This had been planned at Limerick (Ireland) and in Glasgow (Scotland) in May and September 2008, and ran as planned for an initial two-year period through 2009 and 2010. There had been review and planning workshops in Vancouver (Canada) in 2009 and Brussels (Belgium) early in 2010. In June an interim report and review in Ostersund (Sweden) took stock of progress over the first eighteen months. The more definitive synthesis report for these two years was presented in Gabarone. It is now placed on the PURE part of the PASCAL Website. Shorter reports to each participating region had been sent round just before the Conference, and these are also located on this site.

The meeting first heard a presentation of the Report from Professor Mike Osborne, followed by a more specific consideration of the benchmarking work undertaken by a number of participation regions and universities. Professor Bruce Wilson reviewed and analysed the benchmarking work undertaken so far, both in Melbourne and generally. He invited Michael Joris from the Flanders Region to explain how it had been carried out in that region. This work had proved valuable to those taking it up; some would be continuing it in 2011 and others taking it up for the first time. 

The third part of the plenary session constituted a time-pressed but stimulating panel-style set of statements and analyses from partners in the African ITMUA project led by Professor Julia Preece in NUL, Lesotho. The session was chaired by Dr Chester Shaba from the newly formed 4^th PASCAL Centre in UniSA, Pretoria. The Conference gained a sense of the possibilities for bottom-up university engagement renewal, so long as severe and widely experienced financial penury can somehow be overcome. It was evident to everyone listening how much this wider African participation would challenge and benefit participating regions in the ‘North’, as well as helping the African regions in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, and indeed prospectively in other African countries.

The meeting then divided into three parallel groups. One drew together representatives from participating regions to look at what might take place in 2011. The other two reviewed the Report and the work so far, with summaries of their discussions to the final plenary session. The facilitators, Anne Kaplan, Vice-President of Northern Illinois University, and Professor Steve Garlick, an eminent scholar of regional planning and university engagement, and a seasoned reviewer for OECD and PASCAL, reported on the discussions.

Points included recognition of the mutuality of interest between regions in Africa and those elsewhere, and a desire to clarify what indigenous knowledge and African values mean. There was also a shared sense of the crisis affecting universities, and the need to infuse and embed within them a new understanding of engagement, changing the dynamics and the relations within universities generally. The work of PURE was very timely, in view of this crisis. Governments were also struggling with conflicting purposes and priorities; the NGO sector had an important part to play. However PURE must be sensitive in developing its methodology to very diverse local circumstances. The desired directions and outcomes were clear in Africa; implementation was the big challenge. Using very good information to persuade those in power was recommended.

The third parallel group was able to take stock of progress and prospects, with first-hand reports from the eight regions directly represented. The five other PURE regions concluding their two-year cycles were indirectly represented in the sense that at least one member of the visiting Consultative Development Group was present in each case – Buskerud in Norway, Essex and Kent in England, Puglia in Italy, and South Transdanubia in Italy. Overall the sense was one of considerable achievement as a result of taking part in PURE, a general desire to continue, but often great difficulty in raising the financial resources for this in a period of several fiscal restraint.

None the less, high levels of energy and interest were very obvious. It seems that most of these regions will stay involved in PURE work in 2011, together with the three later running regions that are part-way through their two-year cycles – Glasgow in Scotland, Helsinki in Finland, and Devon & Cornwall in the English South-West.

There follow summary notes of what was reported, with an indication what continuation there may be, sometime directly in PURE 2011, sometimes with the PASCAL sister project PUMR (PASCAL Universities for a Modern Renaissance, or Renewal) which is for individual universities.

Flanders – The region will continue in PURE, and benchmarking will continue. Limburg Catholic University College is interested in PUMR. It has students involved in research in community engagement who might wish to join the PASCAL global doctoral network. Partners in Flanders may join the EU RUCOLL project. 

Gaborone – The University of Botswana and its region will maintain networking in PASCAL. Activities will continue to implement the four main areas of the PURE Action Plan, building on the MOU with the City generated by the Project. Formal continuation in PURE may also be possible, if a concrete proposal is made around one or more of these areas. 

Glasgow – Work continues on benchmarking by both HEIs and the regional stakeholders. The region is looking at the particular role of Further Education in regional engagement. Glasgow University is leading an EU FP7 bid, which also involves a number of universities in PURE regions, and is supporting the EU RUCOLL bid 

Jamtland – intends to continue in PURE as part of its PASCAL subscription. The region’s Mid-Sweden University will take up PUMR as part of this subscription. It is part of the EU FP7 proposal led by Glasgow University on Civil Society Organisations and research. Jamtland is leading the EU RUCOLL Interreg bid that will develop PURE work. 

Lesotho – A number of centres within the National University of Lesotho are very keen to continue involvement, including the extra-mural department. The ITMUA project (reported in the plenary session) will provide a flagship.  

Melbourne – PURE work may continue under the new Tertiary Education Plan, and in the context of the State of Victoria’s membership of PASCAL. This depends on the consequences of the change of government following the November 2010 State election, and on the interest of DIIRD and other State Departments in taking up the opportunity. 

Northern Illinois - is continuing in PURE, and developing a cadre of partners from other four-year HEIs in the region. It intends in extension work to draw more fully on international expertise across PURE. 

Varmland – has organized a dissemination event and will invite Jamtland and Buskerud. This is being organized end-on with a national cluster conference on 8-9 February 2011, as part of the process of national innovation. Steve Garlick will be a speaker as part of the region’s continuation within PURE. The University of Karlstad is interested in being involved in PUMR. In so doing it would engage in the second benchmarking round. Buskerud will remain in PURE in 2011.

As to the other regions currently in PURE, Kent will continue in 2011. Essex is exploring the possibility in a context of very severe budget cuts to regional and local authorities by the new UK Government. The Thames Gateway region has been disbanded by the government, bringing its participation to an end, although some continuity is expected within the region at least through some universities.

The Hungarian South Transdanubia Region has discontinued, not least because the funding national Ministry has been disbanded. Indirectly it may continue as a region within the EURUCOLL project. Puglia in southern Italy is also being held up by national political factors. There is every expectation that a way will be found for this interesting region to continue, based on strong public sector-civil society partnership.

The possibility was considered of different PURE partners making specific links (or ‘twinning’) with African regions.  The Belgian university campus in Pretoria may offer possibilities; the University of Glasgow’s MOUs with various African universities were cited as an example. There was discussion of ways in which the four administrative Centres of PASCAL in Australia, the UK, South Africa and the USA could assist in funding arrangements, with advice offered by NIU.

It was agreed that the Clusters within PURE should be re-invigorated. They were a good idea, but had come too early to be taken up confidently. They might also be used for targeted capacity-building sessions.