The United States and its higher education systems are on the verge of a “new paradigm” that may redefine the roles of colleges and universities in promoting state and regional economic development, according to a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government of the State University of New York. The old paradigm rests largely on the traditional mix of business attraction and retention incentives, such as tax breaks or infrastructure, say authors David Shaffer, senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute, and David Wright, the Institute’s director of urban and metropolitan studies. “Research, technology transfer, management assistance, and/or worker training are often thrown in among the incentives — but sometimes as a kind of afterthought,” they write. “Perhaps there is now an opportunity to flip the old model around — adopting a new, ‘knowledge first’ paradigm in which higher education systems explicitly take a leading role.”
The researchers surveyed national trends by examining activities that link higher education and economic development in every state. The pattern of higher education-inspired economic development that has emerged over the past decade is broader than simply the support of research and technology transfer — although those functions remain pivotal, they argue. Shaffer and Wright suggest that current dynamics could transform the influence of higher education on the economies of states and of the nation as a whole. The emerging paradigm should be seen as four related efforts that, when viewed as part of an overall economic development strategy, may encourage more strategic planning about the economic role of higher education.
The four areas are:
- Innovation, which reflects the traditional role of universities in developing new technologies, processes, products, and ideas. This role “sees university faculty and leaders thinking creatively about how to leverage their strengths in knowledge creation to yield tangible economic benefits,” according to the authors.
- Helping employers, which includes worker training, management counseling, assistance with start-ups, and other initiatives.
- Community development, which includes college and university property development and management for housing, business endeavors, culture, and recreation.
- Education, which continues its traditional role in creating an educated population. The new economy makes the traditional academic mission increasingly important, according to the report.
Source: Inside Higher Ed