Mauno Kosonen
Vice-Rector

Back to summer issue 2004

The expectations towards the role unversities should play in regional development have become increasingly great in recent years. Universities are expected to have a visible influence on regional development, and in boosting the vitality of a region, in particular. The research and teaching in universities are to be based not only on their own strengths but also on local, national and international networks.

The approach in the national regional policies in Finland is to see universities and polytechnics as key resources and actors in guaranteeing the country’s different regions equal development opportunities and in fostering the national innovation system. The new Universities Act to be passed in the near future will give universities a Ôthird task’ which will require closer co-operation with society. This means that universities and polytechnics will be expected to participate, together with other parties (municipal and regional authorities, as well as the business community), in devising regional development strategies.

What this Ôthird task’ of universities should entail has been extensively debated among university and science policy makers, as well as in other contexts, such as the EU. The European Commission published a communication in February 2003 entitled "The role of universities in the Europe of knowledge", prepared by the Directorate-Generals for Research and for Education and Culture. The communication sees universities as basic pillars in the formation of an economic area based on information and knowledge and in promoting a European sense of community. The communication is based on the document from 2000 known as the Lisbon strategy, according to which the EU should by 2010 be the world’s most competitive and dynamic, knowledge-based economic area, capable of sustainable economic growth. Reaching this target requires that the European Research Area is first established.

There are more than 4,000 universities in the EU Member States and non-EU countries of Western Europe. They are very different from each other with respect to their tasks and foci, as are national educational and research policies. More co-operation is needed between these universities, as none of the EU Member States alone are able to maintain top research. Student exchange between universities is also still relatively slow. And although there has been significant improvement, in the number of spin-off businesses originating from university research Europe is still lagging behind the United States.

The European Union has high expectations for university research and its applications to produce technological, social and cultural innovations. A conference held recently in Liège, Belgium, "The Europe of Knowledge 2020 - A vision for university-based research and innovation" gathered over a thousand attendees to discuss this aspect of the universities’ third task (http://europa.eu.int/comm/research//univ.html).