LINKAGES BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS OF HE VET AND LABOUR

LINKAGES BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS OF HE, VET AND LABOUR MARKET DR JOAN LOCKYER 1

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The Role of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education 3

Assumptions (some examples) 1. Universities should serve a wider public good as economies face structural challenges to their competitiveness and growth. 2. Education (FE and HE) must be modernised, with substantially new ways of thinking about the way it is delivered. 3. Entrepreneurship (and/or enterprise) should be a part of the whole education landscape.

Problems - #1 • Universities have untapped potential. • A homogeneous education system has developed in which excellence and diversity has given way to uniformity and mediocrity. • Strongly rooted and embedded institutional arrangements and traditions may counteract attempts to transform HE. • Some will see the desire to transform HE as a threat to the institutional identity and its relationship with the State. •

Problems - #2 • The massification of education is one of educations megatrends. Rising costs has led to a resource gap in both research and education activities. • This supports the argument that there should be a more differentiated role for universities: some with a research focus, some with a teaching focus and others doing both. • Universities need to be more accessible and serve business better to avoid the mismatch between education and employment.

Context • A ‘new pact’ between universities, political authorities and society at large is seen to be emerging. This is more than a strategic calculation of expected values (how useful is the role played by universities), but rather a discussion on: • What type of university is needed for what type of society? • What can the university and society expect from each other?

So, what is an entrepreneurial university? • Burton Clark (1998) in book entitled Creating Entrepreneurial Universities described it as: “Breaking out of the constraints imposed by restrictive funding regimes or the bureaucratic conventions of state-run higher education systems by encouraging innovative academic behaviour, engaging with external bodies and generating non -state funding that can cross-subsidise activities and be used to incentivise further entrepreneurial academic activity. ” 8

What does this mean? • Third sector income generation from research and commercialisation of IP is ‘accepted’. • But to be effective, entrepreneurship must penetrate all aspects of academic life and embrace (also be embraced by) all staff and students across the institution. 9

Challenges • Delivery options: embed, bolt-on, extra-curricula, UG, PG, VCP • Is it entrepreneurship, enterprise or employability? • Staffing – staff buy-in and expectations • Knowledge and confidence • Student – wants and expectations • Resources available: institutionally, regionally, nationally. • Cultural issues and constraints

Challenges for Africa • • Africanisation Enrolment Differentiation Internationalisation 11

Africanisation #1 • An emphasis on culture and identity which reaffirms African identity in the world. • Embracing the African experience from an African perspective. Africanisation is a conscious and deliberate assertion of nothing more than the right to be African. • An African system of knowledge production…that intentionally…. affirm the relevance of learning from experiences, languages, symbols and communities. 12

Africanisation #2 • The pursuit of knowledge paradigms that are selfcritical, inward as well as outward looking and reflective of the past and the present while looking into the future. • The concept of Africanisation as rooted in a recognition of indigenous African knowledge systems. 13

Enrolment (South Africa) • 19% as opposed to 60% for most knowledge economies. • While the number of black African students enrolling is in HE is increasing, as a % of the population its not significant. For black Africans to match white African levels of participation in HE (56%) 1. 63 m additional student would need to enrol. A 3 fold expansion in HE provision would be needed to achieve this. 14

Enrolment (South Africa)#2 • The National Development Plan, 2030 wishes Africa to be part of the knowledge economy as such it envisages: • 30% participation in university courses (1. 6 m) • 25% additionally in further education and training (1. 25 m). 15

Differentiation • A differentiation plan will put universities into three groups: 1. Universities 2. University of Technology 3. Comprehensive University (S/M/L based on enrolment) 16

Differentiation. . . will: • Broadens pool of student choice and access routes; • facilitates student mobility (articulation); • allow different institutional identities to co-exist; • allows for greater effectiveness & efficiency; • encourages institutional innovation & flexibility; • enables more effective responses to labour market needs; • high differentiation & high participation could enable greater development, responsiveness. 17

Internationalisation. . . rationale • Universities are under pressure to contribute to national development and economic growth; • focus is away from a resource-intensive to a knowledge-intensive economy; • a deesire for international branding and status; • a desire to attract and recruit talented students, staff and scholars; • a desire to enter into strategic alliances and partnerships (. . . for research, teaching and learning, funding, collaboration, knowledge sharing, innovation, exchanges. . ). 18

Entrepreneurship: saint or sinner? • • • Successive waves of economic crisis. Unstable financial systems. Regional disintegration. Unemployment. Inequality. Technological advances that are changing the way we live, work, stay alive and interact with each other. = Education is in a permanent state of adaptation. 19

The Entrepreneurial University • • • Should reflect and serve local needs and choices. There is no single prescribed model. Its about being adaptive and responsive. It is about differentiation. It must reflect the institutional persona, where you are now and where you want to be in the future. • It should not be driven from above, but frequently is. • Its not a quick fix! 20

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and finally …… • Thank you 22