The civic university and the city
John Goddard
Emeritus Professor of Regional Development Studies
NESTA Provocation
Leading and managing the Civic University:
participating institutions
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Newcastle
University College London
Amsterdam
Groningen
Aalto
Tampere
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin Institute of Technology
Reinventing the civic university
We must ask not just what the University is good at,
but what it is good for.
Putting academic knowledge, creativity and
expertise to work to help make a difference to realworld challenges.
Delivering benefits to society as a whole
(Local, regional, national, global)
These are our 3 societal challenges:
• Changing Age
• Sustainability
• Social renewal
Why Cities?
What are anchor institutions?
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Large locally embedded institutions, typically non-governmental public
sector, cultural or other civic institutions that are of significant importance to
the economy and the wider community life of the cities in which they are
based.
They generate positive externalities and relationships that can support or
‘anchor’ wider economic activity in the locality
‘Anchor institutions do not have a democratic mandate and their primary
missions do not involve regeneration or local economic development.
Nonetheless their scale, local rootedness and community links are such that
they can play a key role in local development and economic growth
representing the ‘sticky capital’ around which economic growth strategies
can be built’ (Work Foundation)
Institutions that are of the city not just in the city
Universities as anchor institutions
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Universities (and teaching hospitals) archetypal anchor
institutions. Two key features of universities:
1. Main location in comparison with private firms fixed within the
current home city – notwithstanding possible expansion to
other nearby or far away campuses- where they have
considerable sunk investment in buildings and strong
identification with the place.
2. On past experience relatively immune to institutional failure
or sudden contractions in size and a source of stability in
local economies. Helping buffer against the worst effects of
periodic downturns. Particularly important as anchor
institutions in weaker economies.
The University and the public good
• “We treat our opportunities to do research not as a
public trust but as a reward for success in past studies”
• “Rewards for research are deeply tied up with the
production of academic hierarchy and the relative
standing of institutions” BUT
• “Public support for universities is based on the effort to
educate citizens in general, to share knowledge, to
distribute it as widely as possible in accord with
publically articulated purposes”
The public value of the social sciences
“ Use of the adjective ‘public’ not only implies fundamental
questions about accountability but also poses additional queries
about to whom we as social scientists should feel
accountable…Public social science has both a research and
teaching agenda and involves a commitment to promote the
public good through civic engagement”
John Brewer : The Public Value of the Social Sciences (2013)
The university IN the city
Newcastle University and Northumbria
Employment Impact
Newcastle + Northumbria
FTE
Direct Employment
Knock on employment impact in
the NE
Knock on employment impact in
rest of the UK
Total
7,833
6,790
2,337
16,960
The university and the development
OF the city
Place making
Business innovation
Social development
The way we innovate is changing
User innovation
Innovation in services
Elberfelder Farbenfabriken vorm.
Friedrich Bayer & Co
Social innovation
Open innovation
Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
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Why is it different?
Different ways of
allocating capital
and people
Different
knowledge
Different
entrepreneurs
Different
selection
mechanisms
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Relevant partners: some old, some new
1. Local authorities
2. Public service organisations (NHS,
schools...)
3. Charities and social enterprises (role
of social finance)
4. “Civic” universities
5. National bodies (ODI, TSB, Nesta)
6. And more
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Social innovation
1. A social demand perspective in terms of the needs of
vulnerable groups traditionally not met by the market
2. A societal challenge perspective through which societal
problems are addressed through new coalitions and where
boundaries between the economic and social blur
3. A systematic change perspective where social innovation in
re-shaping society itself
The quadruple helix
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“Quadruple Helix (QH), with its emphasis on broad cooperation in
innovation, represents a shift towards systemic, open and user-centric
innovation policy. An era of linear, top-down, expert driven development,
production and services is giving way to different forms and levels of
coproduction with consumers, customers and citizens.” (Arnkil, et al, 2010)
“The shift towards social innovation also implies that the dynamics of ICTinnovation has changed. Innovation has shifted downstream and is
becoming increasingly distributed; new stakeholder groups are joining the
party, and combinatorial innovation is becoming an important source for
rapid growth and commercial success. Continuous learning, exploration, cocreation, experimentation, collaborative demand articulation, and user
contexts are becoming critical sources of knowledge for all actors in R&D &
Innovation” (ISTAG 2010)
Tensioned themes
Thomas Bender on the University and the City
• “ I propose that we understand the university as semi-cloistered
heterogeneity in the midst of uncloistered heterogeneity (that is to
say the city…). Because of this difference, relations between the two
are necessarly tense, and they cannot be assimilated into one
another. To do so, either practically or conceptually, is to empty each
of its distinctive cultural meaning and falsify the sociology of each”
(Bender 1988)
The localism challenge
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“Local public agencies (like councils) often find the authority
structure of universities opaque and diffuse; this is a barrier to
collaboration. While the relative autonomy of faculty from the
university administration is a virtue, and the tendency of
academics to view the hierarchy of their discipline as more
important than the hierarchy of university leadership is
inevitable, it still leaves the problem for universities of how –
as institutions – to mobilise to meet shared challenges and
pursue overarching objectives”.
http://www.matthewtaylorsblog.com/
Business models of the university
• The entrepreneurial university model with a strengthened steering
core, enhanced development periphery, a diversified funding base
and stimulated academic heartland (Burton Clark 1998)
• The triple helix model of universities, business and government with
semi-autonomous centres that interface with the external
environment supported by specialist internal units (e.g technology
transfer offices) and external intermediaries (e.g technology and
innovation centres) (Etzkowitz et. al . 2000)
• Strong focus on science, technology and business and a neglect of
the humanities and social sciences, place based communities and
civil society
The ‘un-civic’ university
RESEARCH
TEACHING
FOCUS OF
MANAGEMENT
AND LEADERSHIP
THE ‘CORE’
Funding targets
Hard Boundary between enabling
and non enabling environments
‘THIRD MISSION’
ACTIVITIES
THE ‘PERIPHERY’
The Civic University
THE ACADEMY
TEACHING
RESEARCH
Enhancement
Transformative,
responsive,
demand led
actions
Widening
participation,
community work
ENGAGEMENT
Socioeconomic
impact
Soft
Boundary
SOCIETY
Seven Dimensions of the ‘Civic University’
1. It is actively engaged with the wider world as well as the local community of the
place in which it is located.
2. It takes a holistic approach to engagement, seeing it as institution wide activity and
not confined to specific individuals or teams.
3. It has a strong sense of place – it recognises the extent to which is location helps to
form its unique identity as an institution.
4. It has a sense of purpose – understanding not just what it is good at, but what it is
good for.
5. It is willing to invest in order to have impact beyond the academy.
6. It is transparent and accountable to its stakeholders and the wider public.
7. It uses innovative methodologies such as social media and team building in its
engagement activities with the world at large.
The ‘Civic University’ Development Spectrum
Embryonic
Emerging
Evolving
Embedded
Dimension X
The spectrum describes the ‘journey’ of the institution against
each of the 7 dimensions of the civic university towards the
idealised model. It accepts that a university may be at a
different stage of development on the different dimensions.
This is intended to provide guidance in building a deeper
understanding of where the university is currently positioned
and help in future planning, and is NOT intended to be used as
an assessment or ranking tool.
The connected city and region
The disconnected region
PUBLIC SECTOR
Lack of coherence between national
and regional/local policies
PRIVATE SECTOR
Lack of political leadership
No coordination or representative
voice with which to engage
Lack of a shared voice and vision at
the regional/local level
Motivated by narrow self interest
and short term goals
HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR
Seen as ‘in’ the region but
not ‘of’ the region
Policies and practices
discourage engagement
Focus on rewards for
academic research and
teaching
Dominated by firms with low
demand or absorptive capacity
No boundary spanners
for innovation
Focus on supply side, transactional
interventions
Ineffective or non existent
partnership
Lack of a shared understanding
about the challenges
Entrepreneurs ‘locked out’ of
regional planning
The ‘connected’ region – strong partnerships based
on shared understanding of the challenges and how
to overcome them
PUBLIC SECTOR
Developing coherent policies
that link territorial
development to innovation and
higher education
Evidence based
policies that
support ‘smart’
innovation
and growth
Generating intellectual and
human capital assets for the
region
HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR
Investing in people and
ideas that will create growth
PRIVATE SECTOR
Universities and urban challenges in
England
Sustainable development
Health
Culture
The evidence base
• Case studies of four English cities – Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle
and Sheffield
• Two ‘old’ and two ‘new’ universities in each city.
• Three urban challenge themes comparing Newcastle with one other
city via documentary analysis and interviews with key actors in the
universities and the city
• Sustainable development – Newcastle and Manchester
• Health – Newcastle and Sheffield
• Culture- Newcastle and Bristol
• On line survey of a 1:3 random sample of academics across all
disciplines in six universities (Newcastle, Northumbria; Sheffield,
Sheffield Hallam; Bristol, University of West of England) regarding
the impact of their research (700 responses or 30.0%)
Research Impacts
In which of the following areas do you think your research is
having
either a primary or secondary impact? (n=711)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
NA/Skipped %
30
No impact %
20
Secondary %
Primary %
10
0
Which of the following types of group or organisation do you think are
either primary or secondary beneficiaries of your research? (n=711)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
NA/Skipped %
30
Not %
Secondary %
20
10
0
Primary %
Is the intended impact of your research concentrated in any particular
geographical place(s) or region(s)?
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes %
Is the intended impact of your research concentrated in any particular
geographical place(s) or region(s)?
40
35
30
25
20
Yes %
15
10
5
0
Universities and sustainable cities
Newcastle Science City
• “ There are cities in England that have great areas of science
and we recognise this, but it won’t be of any use to anybody
unless it has an economic and social impact. ... The strategy is to
have a place where you can demonstrate tangibly what the
theories are about: so linking industry, and academia, and
entrepreneurship, and the local population. And making sure that,
in the case of Science Central, all this works together as a kind of
extended part of the city, but also a demonstration of what
Science City is about.”
• [Interviewee, Newcastle Science City Ltd, 08/02/10]
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Newcastle Science Central
• “ In the Energy and Environment [science city theme], what you had
really was a disparate set of activities; you know where individual
academics are engaged with relevant private and public sector
players for their specialism, but not a lot of integration really. And the
integration is still something of a holy grail. But I think, actually,
having the development site on Science Central offers us the
opportunity to finally do some of that for real. And some of it is
[already] happening, at the level of for instance, having ARUP [the
big civil engineering consultancy] involved in the technical aspects
of the master-planning now. I feel we’re genuinely in a situation
where there’s two-way learning going on with ARUP, because we’re
able to use Science Central as a conversation piece”.
• [Interviewee, Newcastle University, 05/03/10]
The Urban Laboratory
• “The notion of treating our city and its region as a seedbed for
sustainability initiatives is a potent one… the vision is of academics
out in the community, working with local groups and businesses on
practical initiatives to solve problems and promote sustainable
development and growth’
• “This necessitates that we proceed in a very open manner, seeking
to overcome barriers to thought, action and engagement; barriers
between researchers and citizens, between the urban and the rural,
between the social and natural sciences, between teaching research
and enterprise”
Newcastle University researcher
Manchester Low Carbon Economic Area
• “One of the central pieces [in the LCEA] is this low-carbon
laboratory, where we will be recognising and exploiting the
fact that we have two universities, a health trust and a city
council, plus a number of private sector partners, all in the
same vicinity, all working together. And so what we’re very
keen to create there is an evidence base approach to a lot of
work that’s coming forward, using the intellect that is in the
universities, and using technology; to capture what’s going on
now, to capture it during the change, and to capture it again
post the change”.
• [Interviewee, ARUP consultancy, 12/05/10].
Manchester Corridor
• “There is some interest, I think, in the way ... the EcoCities
brand, which is gaining some purchase around the region,
now could actually provide a larger context for the Corridor
work. ... I’m potentially really excited about it because I think
this idea of the Laboratory, provides us with a real spatial
focus. It gives a kind of material context to those relationships.
I mean everyone’s got an interest in what happens on Oxford
Road, so it gives you a reason to come together.”
• [Interviewee, The University of Manchester, 18/08/10]
Universities and healthy cities
Newcastle University & NHS
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“Our single biggest engagement programme, bar none, is our clinical
engagement programme with the NHS. ... It dominates numerically and
financially every other thing that we do. ... There’s huge understanding
inside the relevant parts of the academy about what makes them tick,
what’s likely to go down well with them, and what won’t go down well
with them”.
[Interviewee, Newcastle University, 19/05/09 (2nd interviewee)]
• We are absolutely reliant on the clinicians to get good data on every
birth in the region, every pregnancy, every outcome. Without
meticulous attention to detail by doctors and midwives, you wouldn’t
have a dataset worth analysing. ... So we’re reliant on them, but they
also get regular data fed back to them on their outcomes, and that is
gold dust to them, in terms of clinical audit. So it’s a two-way
relationship; they’re reliant on us, we’re reliant on them, and it’s
mutually beneficial.”
[Interviewee, Newcastle University, 03/03/10
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“
The NHS and Newcastle University
• The relationship is more than just partnership; it’s inextricably
linked. Without a range of key academics, who, if they don’t
deliver on their side of the fence, our business suffers. If we
don’t deliver for some of the academic objectives, and
research objectives that are set by the University ... they
suffer too. We’re joined at the hip ... because we’re in the
research and innovation game together, we’re in the training
and education game together ... . You can’t pick and choose
on the relationship”.
[Interviewee, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation
Trust, 26/06/09]
Sheffield :Work based learning
• “We’re continually revising our curriculum, in partnership with our
stakeholders - the strategic health authorities, the acute trusts, the PCTs - in
order to be that one step ahead in terms of anticipating the need. ... We are
very much wedded to work-based learning delivery, and particularly when
you’re talking about some of these groups - part-time, postgraduate
[students] – our unique selling point is around that you come here to learn,
but actually you learn by using your day-job, and so the assignments are
actually around projects that will take your organisation forward as well as
yourself ”.
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[Interviewee, Sheffield Hallam University, 21/07/10b]
Universities and creative cities
Creative Practise
• “I think what we are attempting to do is to try and crack that
nut that a lot of fine art departments have to crack, which is
how do you work in a professional practice environment that’s
recognised by students and postgraduates, but also works to
the needs of a research culture ... . What kinds of resources
do you need? ... Really the model you want to put forward is a
sort of relationship of art and the city; so very metropolitan,
very urban. It’s not on campus, its right in the middle of town”.
• [Interviewee, Northumbria University, 22/11/11]
Bristol Watershed and Pervasive Media Studio
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“Watershed is a cross-artform venue and producer, sharing, developing and
showcasing exemplary cultural ideas and talent. We are based in Bristol,
but place no boundaries on our desire to connect with artists and audiences
in the wider world.
Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio (a city-centre research space)
occupy the first floor of a historic Grade II* listed building at the entranceway
to Bristol's Harbourside.
The Pervasive Media Studio, brings together a network of over 100 artists,
technologists and academics to explore the future of mobile and wireless
media.
A creative technologies collaboration between Watershed, University of
West of England and University of Bristol. Based in the heart of Bristol, we
bring together creators from diverse backgrounds to research and produce
new experiences”.
http://www.watershed.co.uk/about/about-us/
Academia & the Bristol Pervasive Media Studio
• “we as acdemics are really planning for five to ten years
ahead, people in business are usually planning for the next
quarter or the next six months or the next year. There are
different temporalities, and one of the things that we can do is
try to use our expertise to catch some of the things that they
don’t really have time to reflect on, or have the analytical
purchase on, and play it back to them, and help them enrich
their own process”.
• [Interviewee, University of the West of England, 24/10/11]
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The studio perspective
• “I think one of the benefits of working with academics is that they provide a
kind of stability in the way we work. ... There is a space in the middle where
they can collaborate which is the work that might come out in 2 to 3 years.
And then there’s the horizon work, which the academy is in a much better
place to look at, because it hasn’t got the commercial constraints. ... But the
studio acts as a kind of gearing mechanism to try and help those
timescales, agendas, cash flows, find each other and work together.”
•
There is a 5 year collaboration agreement between the three
[organisations] at a corporate level, which we are calling a creative
technologies collaboration. So it’s for research, innovation and teaching
in what we are broadly calling creative technologies; so that cross- over
space between creative content and digital computing. This mixed up
space that none of us quite understand. ... So it is an active
collaborative space, which adds value to what the universities can do in
their own faculties, on their premises, on their own.”
Conclusion: what does this all mean for
public policy?
Policy implications – looking back
• Dearing “HE is now a significant force in regional economies
as a source of income and employment, a contribution to
cultural life and in supporting regional and local economic
development… As part of the compact we envisage between
HE and society each institution should be clear about its
mission in relation to local communities and regions”.
• Dearing clearly recognised that this ‘compact’ was wide
ranging, had a strong local dimension and was one where the
university’s contribution to ‘the economy’ could not be
separated from the wider society in which it is embedded.
University
Lack of local demand for
and supply of students
Lack of demand and
capacity in local SMEs
Nationally driven
policies and funding for
innovation
Demise of regional
funding streams
Recruitment vs widening
participation
CONTRIBUTION OF UNIVERISITIES TO SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CITIES