Globalisation of Knowledge: Challenges

1
Globalisation of Knowledge Challenges
Opportunities for Higher Education and Higher
Education Institutions

• Dr Ellen Hazelkorn
• Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
• Programme in Higher Education and Research
  Policies
• University of Lausanne
• November 2005

2

• For the first time, a really international world
  of learning, highly competitive, is emerging. If
  you want to get into that orbit, you have to do
  so on merit. You cannot rely on politics or
  anything else. . .  Research is a core element
  of the mission of higher education. The extent
  to which higher education institutions are
  engaged in research and development activities
  has a key role in determining the status and the
  quality of these institutions and the
  contribution, which they make to economic and
  social development.

3
Themes

1. Higher Education in a Global Knowledge
   Marketplace
2. Restructuring the University for Change
3. Challenges and Opportunities for Policymakers and
   Higher Education Institutions

4
1. Higher Education in a Global Knowledge
Marketplace
5

• . we cannot be complacentbecause other
  international competitors like Australia, China
  and India are making big strategic investments in
  their best research and if we do not do the same
  we will slip down the research league (UK
  Department for Education and Skills, 2004).
• if Europe wants to remain competitive at
  international level, more investments both public
  and private, are going to be required to generate
  scientific and technological that can be compared
  to the performance of the USA or Japan (Rainer,
  2004).
• The continued transition to more knowledge-based
  economies, coupled with growing competition from
  non-OECD countries, has increased reliance of
  OECD countries on the creation, diffusion and
  exploitation of scientific and technological
  knowledge, as well as other intellectual assets,
  as a means of enhancing growth and productivity.
  (OECD, 2004a)

6
Changing Idea of the University

• Classical University mission and role of higher
  education and academic research distinct from
  commercial activity
• American Graduate School mission to train the
  next generation of scholar-researchers
• Polytechnics and New Generation Universities
  new model catering for wider range of
  socio-economic groups and educational
  requirements

7
Post-WW2, post-Sputnik era...

• Economic and demographic boom
• Significance of scientific discovery
• Perceived gap between investment and output in
  terms of innovation and contribution to the
  national economy
• Subdivision of disciplines and professionalisation
  of academic careers
• Heightened importance of educational attainment

8
Post-1970s Pressures

• Fiscal crisis ? management by market forces
• Knowledge-based economy
• Sophisticated labour market student demand
• Restructuring of HEIs ? pressures on the academy
• Massification and universalisation of higher
  education
• Accountability and responsibility

9
Changing HE environment

• Globalisation and internationalisation
• Demographics and enrolment patterns
• Technological revolution
• Stricter regulatory environment
• New educational sites and formats
• Changing nature of the workplace and academic work

10
New Model of HEI?

• In contrast to older, traditional universities,
  new HEIs
• have grown exponentially and now majority of all
  HEIs around the world
• channelled mass demand away from historically
  elite sector
• influenced wider debate about institutional and
  research diversity
• emphasize particular skills and training,
• accommodate new areas of knowledge via
  innovative courses suited to the new economies
• engage directly with the wider community
• support both applied and long-term RD

11
Restructuring HE systems

• Traditional institutional boundaries fading
• Elite vs. Mass
• Vocational vs. Academic
• Technological vs. Traditional
• Undergraduate vs. Postgraduate
• New binary emerging?
• Teaching vs Research
• Third level vs Fourth level
• Regional/community vs National/international
  status

12
Higher Education Mission

• To produce new knowledge
• To produce new knowledge workers
• To produce new knowledge producers

13
Theories Underlying Change

• Competitive Advantage (Porter, 1990)
• National Systems of Innovation (Lundvall, 1992
  Nelson, 1993)
• Triple Helix (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 1997)
• Mode 2 (Gibbons, et al, 1994 Nowotny et al,
  2001)
• Entrepreneurial University (Clark, 1998 Clark,
  2004)

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Competitive Advantage

• Distinguishes between
• Comparative advantage inherited factors like
  cheap labour or energy, or natural resources
• Competitive advantage which is created via a menu
  of institutional or enterprise strategies
• 4 interlinked factors
• Factor conditions adequate infrastructure/funding
  , research competence and capability
• Demand conditions relevance and interest in
  research/academic output
• Organisational strategy management/organisational
  structure
• Regional/national relations membership/participat
  ion in collaborative networks and partnerships
• Role of Government critical

15
National Systems of Innovation

• Technological advance in advanced industrial
  nations proceeds through the close and complex
  interaction the close interaction between
  science, research and development.
• Policy focused on creating the environment
  necessary for promoting collaboration and
  interdependence between the different actors
  (universities, private firms, government/public
  sector)
• As a result, HEIs are now widely regarded as an
  integral part of the national innovation system.

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Triple Helix

• Transformation of knowledge into wealth requires
  tripartite collaboration or triple helix, which
• network between university/researchers-industry-go
  vernment
• each element recognises the mutual benefit of
  such co-operation
• evolving networks of communication
• Boundaries between public and private, science
  and technology, university and industry are in
  flux. Universities and firms are assuming tasks
  that were formerly the province of the other
  sectors.

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Mode 2

• Mode 2
• Intellectual and strategic importance of
  collaborative and interdisciplinary work focused
  on useful application, with external partners
  including the wider community.
• Achieves accountability and quality control via
  new knowledge production does so through social
  accountability and reflexivity.
• Mode 1
• Disciplinary or curiosity-oriented research
• Achieves accountability and quality control via
  the peer-review process

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Entrepreneurial University

• Entire universities, and their internal
  departments transforming themselves into
  organisations capable of taking chances and
  earning additional income in the educational
  marketplace
• Five characteristics
• Strengthened steering core
• Expanded developmental periphery
• Diversified funding base
• Stimulated academic heartland
• Integrated entrepreneurial culture

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HE Research as Economic Driver

• Global knowledge-economy ? Strategic importance
  of national research strategy formation of
  human capital
• National and regional development ? production of
  new knowledge, knowledge transfer and economic
  performance
• Role and mission of HE ? task of growing
  research capability and capacity no longer
  optional
• Innovation, application and knowledge
  specialization ? competitive advantage and
  performance
• Academic knowledge production Innovation
  Economic growth

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Governments Examining Future of HE

• Backing Australias Future, Australia, 2002-2004
  
• Higher Education at the Crossroads, Australia,
  2002
• Achieving Excellence Investing in People,
  Knowledge and Opportunity, Canada, 2002
• Action Scheme for Invigorating Education Towards
  the 21st Century, 2001, China
• Higher Education Act, Czech Republic, 1998, 2001
  
• University Act, Denmark, 2003
• Higher Education Act, 2000, Hungary
• OECD Thematic Review of Higher Education,
  Ireland, 2004
• A New Image of National University Corporations,
  Japan, 2002
• Shaping the System, New Zealand, 2000
• The Distinctive Contributions of Tertiary
  Education Organisations, New Zealand, 2004
• Law of Autonomy of Universities, Portugal,
  currently being debated in parliament
• Brain Korea 21, South Korea, 2004
• White Paper 3 on Higher Education, 1994, South
  Africa
• Higher Education Act, 1997, South Africa
• Sustainability of University Research, UK, 2003
• Review of Research Assessment, UK, 2003
• Future of Higher Education, UK, 2003.
  

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Factors Influencing Policy Review
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Policy Trends (1)

• Battle for world class excellence via
  concentration of resources around select few
  universities or departments
• Strong focus on science and technology as
  economic driver
• Creation of knowledge transfer networks,
  separating teaching and research via feeder
  institutions
• Social or institutional contract between
  government and universities
• Accountability and responsibility
• Management by market forces
• Stricter regulatory environment

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Policy Trends (2)

• Differential, competitive or externally earned
  funding
• User pays principle via de-regulated fees

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RD Policy Trends

• Strong focus on science and technology as wealth
  creators
• Designation of a few priority research domain
• Growing emphasis on knowledge and technology
  transfer activities
• Emphasis on entreprenurial activities and
  reorganisation of university to enable such
  activities
• Growing separation between teaching and research
  activities and careers
• Academic salaries pegged to market value.

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International Experiences

• Taiwan three-tiered system lt10
  research-oriented universities, state colleges
  and community colleges
• Brazil ST investment in well-established
  universities at expense of newer research centres
  in remote parts of country
• Japan research funding, competition and
  evaluation
• China 211 policy will develop 100 world-class
  universities
• Baltics merging universities and research
  institutes in drive for competitiveness
• South Africa merging universities and Technikons
  to create better and more competitive HEIs
• Russia call for Russell Group of top-rated
  universities

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International Experiences

• Denmark/Sweden tradition of research-based
  teaching
• Canada Innovation Fund focus on
  innovation/return on investment in research, i.e.
  commercialisation
• UK and Australia Research Assessment Exercise
  provides competitive funding to best research
  departments and institutions, and forcing
  developing of centres of excellence
• Ireland National Development Plan, Science
  Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland
  developing institutional capacity in
  internationally competitive HE research and
  collaboration with industry
• New Zealand HE resource allocation driven by
  economy and society and no longer student choice

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Observations

• Policy similarities transcend national boundaries
  and political party in power.
• Ever-widening global knowledge production divide
  between research-rich and research-poor
  nations.
• Developing countries operating at huge knowledge
  and technological disadvantage because they lack
  a sufficient pool of trained personnel to perform
  research and development in new technologies my
  emphasis.
• Active and selective use of policy instruments is
  critical

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Implications for HE

• Greater competition ? alliances, mergers,
  acquisitions
• Governments and HEIs benchmarking performance in
  international terms
• Funding tied to measurable outcomes
• National priority-setting
• Transversal themes vs. defined technologies
• Value-added commercialisation vs. simple
  knowledge production
• Funding based upon outcomes, e.g. UK RAE
• Regional/local society not identified as priority
• Declining role of HASS disciplines

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Organisational Implications

• New knowledge production
• Partnerships with and between other
  knowledge-producing institutions
• Knowledge production/dissemination conducted in
  diverse contexts and with heterogeneous skills
• Flatter and more temporary management structures
• Entrepreneurial model emphasis on autonomous
  units and alternative revenue sources
• Growing distinction between teaching research

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Impact of Policy Changes
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Policy Influencing Institution Behaviour

• universitiesdirect efforts in obtaining parts
  of the earmarked funding whether for research,
  education, knowledge transfer or organisational
  changes. (Denmark)
• that funding is likely to accrue only to the
  quantum of 3 research will mean massive
  reduction in funding. (UK)
• continued trend towards formulaic
  performance-based fundingin the mainhas
  benefited us. (Australia)
• RAE has had huge effect on performancegenerally
  positive. (Scotland)

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Summary (1)

• Globalisation having profound impact on higher
  education and academic research policy
• Governments and HEIs thinking more strategically
  about academic knowledge production
  dissemination
• Government policy more pro-active and
  interventionist

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Summary (2)

• Significant system shaping and super-market
  steering to maximise HE role in economic growth
  and performance
• Small group of internationally-focused
  research-intensive universities
• Larger group of nationally or regionally-focused
  mainly teaching institutions
• New binary has implications for government
  efforts to move beyond the elite phase of higher
  education and widen access to the knowledge
  society.

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2. Restructuring the University for Change
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• Given that research practices are changing and
  the pressures to deliver significant outputs are
  intensifying, the key question is how to
  structure and organise teaching and research in
  the universities (Gibbons et al, 1994).

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Strategic Planning and Priority-setting

• Shape what should do, not simply what can or are
  best equipped to do
• Optimal use of scarce resources (financial, human
  and physical)
• Align institutional competencies with external
  environment and national aspirations
• Balance existing capability with potential and
  opportunities

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Institutional Opportunities

• National and regional economy
• Institutional history and development
• Research experience, capability and capacity
• HE system and role of individual HEIs

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Identifying Institutional Mission

• Teaching-only
• Research informed
• Research based
• Research active
• Research led
• Research intensive
• Research-only

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Process of Growing Research
Context
Strategy
Organisation
Global knowledge economy National regional
economy HE system investment HEI history
experience Evaluation benchmarking
V-P Research Research KT/TT Office Research
teams centres Science parks Graduate
School HR policies Infrastructure
Strategic plan priority setting Match
competences with niche Investment strategy Align
funding, recruitment to priorities RAM Alliances
collaboration
Government vs HEI Mission? Teaching vs Research
vs Scholarship? World-class vs National vs
Region? ST vs HASS?
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Key Steps

• Map institutional and researcher priorities and
  competences against external environment/prioritie
  s
• Identify goals and objectives, institutional
  priorities
• Draft strategy and realistic implementation plan
• Put appropriate structures, finance, support
  services and infrastructure in place
• Facilitate and encourage faculty, viz.
  reward/award systems, career path,

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Priority-setting Process

• Centralised or top-down priorities and funding
  are determined by Pro-Vice Chancellor for
  Research
• De-centralised or bottom-up priorities set by
  individual researchers or departments
• Combination priorities set via involvement of
  different vertical levels of university
  personnel, boards and groups

42
Indicative Research Structure
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Research Management

• Director/Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research
• Research office
• Research strategy and management plan
• Priority-setting and evaluation process
• Research units/centres with special resources

44
Research Office

• Professional One-stop Shop
• Financial and budget advice
• Identify funding opportunities
• Project preparation
• Project management
• Research training and mentoring
• Ph.D. programmes
• Intellectual property and commercialisation
  advice

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Technology Transfer Office

• Professional project and contract management
• Professional advice regarding
• Pre-contract
• Intellectual Property, patents, licensing and
  other forms of exploitation
• Sourcing new funding opportunities
• Budget preparation
• Application writing
• Researcher and supervisor training
• Sector intelligence
• Mentoring
• Identifying and promoting links, research and
  other projects between academia and industry

46
Widening Definition of Research

• Basic vs applied
• Disciplinary vs interdisciplinary (Mode 1 vs Mode
  2)
• Professional and creative practice
• Knowledge and technology transfer
• Research vs Scholarship Research and
  Scholarship?

47
Culture of Scholarship

• Not everyone needs to be involved in research
• Policies should enhance nexus between research
  and teaching
• Range of services, awards and rewards to
  encourage and facilitate research should be
  introduced
• Wider definition of scholarship, rather than a
  traditional dichotomous view of basic and
  applied, would provide more encouraging
  environment

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Identifying Priorities

• Applied research
• Industry-related
• Basic research
• Institutional significance
• Collaboration
• Interdisciplinary
• Regional or local significance
• New or emerging domain
• Creative practice

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Strategic Alliances

• Collaboration paramount to developing programmes
  and sustainable research
• external partners
• industry/commerce
• local and/regional economy
• other and similar HEIs
• Exploiting particular niche advantages and
  opportunities

50
Building teams

• Existing expertise, commitment and mutual
  benefit/compatibility
• Champion at both individual and institutional
  level
• Deep disciplinary knowledge
• Support structures, incl. funding
• Relationship between research and teaching, to
  institutional structures
• Appropriate management competences
• How to grow such activity from ab initio status?

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Organising Research

• Determining the teaching (departments) and
  research (structures/units) nexus
• Distinguishing between discipline oriented and
  problem solving research
• Linking research/commercialisation to society via
  boundary-crossing units
• Building collaborative research teams with other
  universities, research labs, industry,
  organisations, etc.
• Growth of research/commercialisation extended
  peripheries linked with society
• Collaboration between universities, and
  convergence with external research labs

52
Reconfiguring the T and R nexus?
Model T-R Nexus Organisation Career
Type 1 T R Inclusive departments Integrated
Type 2 T R Undergraduate units/pgraduate Active Inactive
Type 3 T R Departments autonomous centres Parallel Pathways
Type 4 T ? R University autonomous institutes Separate careers
53
Growth Strategies HR Issues

• To what extent should/can everyone be involved in
  research?
• To what extent should reward and award systems
  reflect the multiple missions/disciplines/work/per
  formance of academic staff?
• What is the balance between research, teaching,
  practice and service? How can this be recognised
  in academic contracts/work?
• What is the appropriate time-horizon given
  internal realities and external pressures?
• Is growing research from a fragile base
  possible?

54
Building Competence

• Recruit
• Re-invigorate
• Train
• Re-orient
• Enable

55
Incentives and Rewards

• Greater research time
• Targeted grants
• Promotional opportunities
• Enhanced facilities
• Internships with industry or other partners
• Salary increases
• Sabbatical leave

56
Financing Research

• Government funding is declining
• Rise in competitive external funding
• Diversify funding base
• Income generation via consultancy, services,
  commercialisation, IP
• Investment strategies

57
Resource Allocation Model

• Criteria influenced by national/international
  benchmarks
• Institute or faculty assessment panels
• Peer-review publications, research income,
  citations, PhDs
• Role of professional or creative practice?
  consultancy?
• Formulaic funding to match institutional/national
  objectives and priorities

58
Institutional Actions
Types of Actions
Strategic Prioritising, Focusing, Targeting, Resourcing, Partnering, Developing critical mass
Management Supporting, Resourcing, Appointing Heads of Research, Professionalizing the service, Investing
Organisational Research Secretariat, Funding and targeting international programming, Priority-setting
Human Resources Targeted recruitment, International fellowships, Research-only posts, Internationalisation of staff
Other Linking to SME/local government, Benchmarking Mapping resources to strategy
59
Summary Institutional Best Practice

• Change from collegial to managerial structures
• Develop good research strategy, infrastructure,
  supports, training
• Greater selectivity to support high quality
  research via evaluations
• Emphasis on inter- and intra-institutional and
  disciplinary collaboration
• Monitor staff research activity, outputs,
  performance
• Focus on formulaic drivers (research income,
  outputs, completions)
• Develop Graduate School

60
Summary Changing Research Practices

• Distinction between discipline oriented and
  problem solving research
• Increasing tension between teaching (departments)
  and research (structures/units)
• Emphasis on research teams and alliances
• Growth of research/commercialisation extended
  peripheries linked with society and via
  consultancy and other services,
  commercialisation, licensing, etc.

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Changes Not Without Controversy

• University as locus of intellectual debate vs.
  commercialisation/corporatisation of knowledge
• Academic freedom
• Individual vs. institutional research agenda
• Focus on external/private funding
• Marketisation of higher education
• Competition for best students and faculty
• Value for money/return on investment
  applicability to programme development?
• Academic capitalism
• Changes in academic work practices
• Collegiality vs. Meritocracy

62
Debates

• Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (1996)
  Modern University linked to the nation-state,
  promoting and protecting the idea of a national
  culture. Today, universities are turning into
  transnational corporations, driven by market
  forces, more interested in profit margins than in
  thought.
• Shelia Slaughter/Larry Leslie, Academic
  Capitalism (1997)
• Higher education increasingly obligated to
  extra-academic market rather than the public
  good. As universities are forced to raise
  tuition, faculty are forced to seek outside
  funding, pushing research to become less
  "curiosity-driven" and more market-driven. 
• Gerard Delahunty, Challenging Knowledge (2001) A
  new role and identity is emerging for university
  around democratisation of knowledge. Because
  knowledge is more important today and emanates
  from more than one source, the university can act
  as a critical avenue of communication.

63
3. Challenges and Opportunities for Policymakers
and Higher Education Institutions
64

• The nature of higher education development is
  not limited by national boundaries, but each
  nation must have the capacity to examine the
  costs and benefits of each new development and
  decide whether it is appropriate for their own
  society or culture..
• (OECD, Review of Financing and Quality Assurance
  Reforms in Higher Education in the Peoples
  Republic of China, 2003)

65
Research Excellence

• Competition for greater share of global knowledge
  production market
• Government strategic emphasis on
• research, development innovation
• formation of human capital through education
  training
• HE research as engine of economic growth
• Increasing emphasis on collaborative,
  interdisciplinary and useful knowledge
• ? Society demanding more from higher education

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Creating world class universities two scenarios

• Few research universities concentrate all world
  class research across all disciplines rest
  concentrate on undergraduate or professional
  teaching with limited locally relevant applied
  research.
• Spread of teaching and research excellence with
  universities as main proximity knowledge
  providers driven to specialise because of
  relevance and competences.

67
Late-developers and Newcomers

• Barriers or restricted barriers to entry
• Disadvantages of starting late from poor base
• Market forces ? devastating impact on late
  developer or newcomer
• Close relationship between policymakers and
  dominant groups
• Criteria and rules for research funding are
  antipathetic to new HEIs

68
Sheer under-development of profile

• Not traditionally resourced for research
• Poor institutional infrastructure
• Limited scale and critical mass
• Academic staff often without necessary
  prerequisites
• Academic workload tensions
• New disciplines without research tradition

69
Issues and Trends (1)

• Competitive advantage of older institutions built
  over time
• Close relationship between policymakers and
  dominant groups
• Government policy appears to favour established
  institutions
• Criteria and rules for research funding are
  antipathetic to new HEIs
• Insufficient regard for needs of late-developers
  or newcomers
• Government policy facilitates operational
  differentiation

70
Issues and Trends (2)

• Research new binary?
• Diversification vs. stratification
• Concentration of Research
• World Class
• Classification, ranking and ratings systems
• Tensions between teaching research nexus
• T R public good that needs to be proven
• Research helping to (re)define and (re)structure
  HE systems
• Definition of university
• Research university as default version

71
Intended/Unintended Consequences

• Ignore or restrict institutional
  development/change
• Re-introduce or re-confirm class binary
• Encourage a single definition of university
• Privileges traditional definitions of research
• Accentuate existing uneven playing field
• Suck innovation out of the regions
• Endorse self-interested claim of established
  elite HEIs
• Reinforces/re-introduces binary between
  institutions

72
Policy Issues

• What roles should different institutions play
• teaching and research within and between HEIS
  research institutes?
• public and private providers?
• regional/community and national/international
  focus?
• What strategies can help grow and organise
  innovative research?
• What is the appropriate balance between teaching,
  research and innovation?
• Should research funding be spread equitably or
  should only a few concentrate on research and the
  rest focus on teaching and training?

73
Changing Nature of Academic Work

• Academics under more and new pressures
• teach larger number of students
• conduct (more) research
• change role of teacher to facilitator
• improve teaching and learning
• Students demanding better quality and job
  assurances
• Change from promotion via seniority to
  meritocracy
• ? Greater emphasis on accountability, performance
  and assessment

74
Policy Issues

• Teacher vs Researcher integrated or
  complementary careers?
• Should reward and award systems reflect
  differences among academic staff
• teaching and research?
• performance?
• Can workloads or career structures be
  sufficiently flexible to change/be negotiated
  over ones career?

75
Teaching-Research Nexus (1)

• 4 Trends causing disconnect between T and R
  (Clark, 1995)
• Massification of higher education
• Increased labour market demand for professional
  experts
• Increasing gap between frontier knowledge and
  teachable codified knowledge
• Increasing government patronage and supervision
• Most studies unable to confirm direct or simple
  correlation between teaching and research
• T reinforces R, opening up new areas for
  consideration, enabling testing of ideas (Shore,
  Pinker, Bates, 1990)
• Separating T from R does not necessarily increase
  teaching quality (Ramsden and Moses, 1992)
• T and R difficult to measure quantitatively
  former measured via student assessments and
  latter measured by outputs. (Brew and Boud, 1995)

76
Teaching-Research Nexus (2)

• Problems arise from perception that T and R are
  competitive and mutually exclusive, but
• evidence suggests that undergraduates select
  universities on the basis of their research
  reputation or that of their professors because
  this reputation is the best assurance of a good
  job or admission to a preferred graduate or
  professional school after graduation. (Brooks,
  1994)
• Students come to research universities preferring
  to listen to the great men who wrote books and
  articles which others only interpret. (Lipset,
  1994)
• While preparation for research work is research
  centred, preparation for professional practice is
  increasingly research informed. (Clark, 1995)

77
Policy Issues

• Teaching vs. Research or Teaching Research?
• Is there a contradiction between trends of
  intensive research and mass education?
• If not engaged in research, is it possible to do
  advanced level teaching?
• Given international competitiveness and funding
  restrictions, does it make sense to distinguish
  between research and teaching HEIs?
• Do institutional contracts which separate T R
  undermine each activity or facilitate them?

78
University-Industry Relations

• HEIs now seen as playing critical role in
  economic growth
• Increasing emphasis on triple helix relations
• Focus on commercialisation of university research
• Universities re-organising selves to enable this
  activity
• Internships, sabbaticals, etc.

79

Challenges (1)

• Proximity matters for university-industry
  collaboration
• Reduced research capacity has knock-on
  consequences for regional economic performance
  and technology innovation
• SMEs find it difficult to work with research
  departments on other side of the country
• Technology foresight studies can narrow fields of
  investigation
• Implications for new ideas and new theories
• Implications for arts, humanities and social
  sciences

80
Challenges (2)

• Industry and university have different missions,
  needs and timetables
• Mission of university is to produce new knowledge
  not new products and services
• Short-term applied knowledge needs of research
  buyers vs. research as discovery
• Research and teaching vs. research and
  commercialisation
• Requirement for peer-review vs. need for
  confidentiality
• Research is dependent upon individual
  researchers creativity and commitment

81
Challenges (3)

• Managing economic/commercialisation expectation
• Academic knowledge production Innovation
  Economic growth?
• Spin-off numbers and commercialisation
  possibilities often inflated
• IPR policies can inhibit or enable exploitation
• Ability to earn significant third stream income
  to overcome decline in public funding
  over-exaggerated

82
Challenges (4)

• Assuring the integrity productivity of research
• Research integrity vs. Patron productivity
• Public/government vs. private/industry funding
  does the piper play the tune?
• Does emphasis on return on investment value
  for money undermine research as experimentation
  or discovery?
• Does commercialisation of publicly funded
  research potentially conflict with putting the
  public interest ahead of institutional benefit?
• Managing ethical concerns, e.g. conflict of
  interest

83
Policy Initiatives (1)

• Widen funding mechanisms to
• Underpin
• diverse university missions
• collaborative, inter-organisational research
• research across all disciplines and research
  methodologies
• Reward improvements and potential
• Underpin link between research and teaching,
  especially postgraduate level
• Encourage innovation networks, learning regions,
  community engagement, innovation and
  knowledge/technology transfer
• Investment strategy to grow research capability
  and capacity

84
Policy Initiatives (2)

• Overcoming late development
• Head-start grants
• Staff development, mobility and HR strategies
• Support research training and career development
• Strengthen institutional/research management and
  leadership
• Appropriate reward and award systems
• Researcher career structures
• Build critical research infrastructure

85
Policy Initiatives (3)

• Widen evaluation metrics to
• Reward research (basic and applied) across all
  disciplines, and knowledge and technology
  transfer activities
• Support diverse institutional missions
• Encourage and reward potential
• Re-examine legislative or other constraints which
  may impede the operation and development of new
  universities

86
Institutional Strategic Choices

• Disciplinary vs interdisciplinary/applied vs
  basic research?
• Individual researchers vs research teams?
• Recruit or grow?
• TR vs T/R?
• Targeted/niche vs seed-corn/universal funding?
• Institutional funding vs competitive funding?
• Decentralised vs centralised management structure?

87
Basic vs Applied Research?

• Widening the definition of research
• Boyer 4 scholarships
• Gibbons Mode 2
• Creative and Professional Practice
• Consultancy
• Service

88
Individual vs Research Teams?

• Research is dependent upon individuals but is
  no longer an individual activity
• Shift locus of activity away from individuals
  and towards clusters
• Emphasis on critical mass of scholars based
  around interdisciplinary teams with
  grant-awarding reputations and timely outcomes

89
Recruit or Grow?

• Should an institution recruit new faculty or help
  existing faculty develop new or enhanced skills?
• ability to recruit good researchers
• availability of competence
• available funding
• responsiveness of faculty

90
Teaching vs Research?

• Academic contracts usually include requirements
  to teach and conduct research
• Research activity is a key criteria in
  appointment and promotion
• Dual career paths?

91
Specialisation vs Comprehensive Research
Activity?

• Creating competitive advantage
• Priority setting activity
• Competitive funding opportunities
• Resource allocation models
• Identify research active faculty
• National or institutional priorities

92
Institutional vs. Competitive Funding

• Selective use of institutional funding
• Seed-fund new, potential or weaker fields
• Underpin research active
• Focus on research priorities
• Matching funding
• To what extent should researcher be
• Denied institutional funds
• encouraged to seek competitive funds

93
Decentralised vs Centralised management?

• Layer-decision making institute, faculty,
  department, centre
• Professional management
• Research office
• Institutional research committee
• Role of individual researchers?

94
Recommendations (1)

• Investment Strategy Align budgets to support
  research, research active staff competitive
  research
• Organisational Structures Establish research
  office and designated positions, including a
  graduate school
• Performance Indicators Use benchmarks to shape
  priorities, funding, recruitment, etc.
• Priority-setting Map competences and niche
  specialisation against national/international
  priorities.

95
Recommendations (2)

• Research Centres Grow research groups capable of
  winning external funding and recognition.
• Align Priorities with teaching, funding and
  infrastructure.
• Strategic Alliances Link with other HEIs and
  public/private organisations to match priorities
• Leadership Ensure Strategy is endorsed by
  President, senior management and boards of
  trustees

96
Summary (1)

• Today, new knowledge produced
• by a multiple of organisations in the public and
  private spheres
• in partnership between these spheres
• Higher education is only another player in a
  complex global knowledge industry
• HEIs (re)examining mission, strategies and
  organisation
• RD is both an institutional and national
  strategic concern

97
Summary (2)

• Research capacity and capability influencing
  institutional status and future
• Institutions need to make choices about their
  future and the role of research in that future
• New knowledge production requires new structures
  frameworks

98
Summary (3)

• New HEIs are dynamically redefining the
  university for the 21st century
• Professionalising new disciplines, introducing
  new teaching practices and broadening research
  activity
• Lack demonstrated capacity and strong resource
  base of more established institutions. 
• Experience barriers to success which are unlikely
  to be overcome without a change in government
  policy.

99
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