In the early 1970s, the notion of a university with strong links to the business community and with a focus on the economic and social development of its region was relatively uncommon. From its establishment in 1972, the University of Limerick adopted a different approach from the ‘traditional’ Irish universities, and over the past 20 years has cultivated new relationships in its local environment. In this article, Donal Dineen examines the nature and development of this alternative approach, the links with the local economy and the impact of the primary teaching and research activities of the University, the main institutional features arising from these factors and the lessons learned from the experience. Those concerned with the role of universities in less developed and/or peripheral regions of the European Union will find this especially of interest, as the Limerick model involves a ‘greenfield’ site whereby a university was introduced to a predominantly rural area struggling to attract foreign investment as part of a strategy to accelerate economic development.
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References
1.
See Commission of the European Communities, Memorandum on Higher Education in the European Community, Task Force Human Resources Education Training and Youth, 1992.
2.
See Commission of the European Communities, Responses to the Memorandum on Higher Education in the European Community, Synthesis Report, Task Force Human Resources Education Training and Youth, April 1993.
3.
Ireland, in common with Portugal, Greece and much of Spain, is classified as an ‘Objective 1’ region by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy, a classification which is based on relatively low average incomes and relatively high unemployment rates compared to the EU average. Objective 1 regions qualify for considerably more aid under the Structural and Cohesion Funds designed to narrow the gap in living standards between them and the more prosperous regions of the Union.
4.
The Mid-West/Shannon region of Ireland reflects much of the Irish experience of development in this respect and observing the trend begs the question why so few employment oportunities were created. This is outside the scope of the present paper, but interesting perspectives on the matter are found in KennedyK.A.GiblinT.McHughD., The Economic Development of Ireland in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, London, 1988, in which the authors take a long-term perspective of Ireland's development experience. A comparative analysis of Ireland's economic performance highlighted the lack of innovation as a prime cause of failure to develop at rates commensurate with other smaller European economies in a recent report for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) by MjosetL.The Irish Economy in a Comparative Institutional Perspective, NESC Report No 93, Stationery Office, Dublin, 1992.
5.
The impact of the University in terms of the spending power brought to the region from the wages and salaries of those employed there, or from the purchasing power of the transient student population, or indeed from the research contracts or other income-generating activities of the institution, are not the subject of study in this paper per se. This is not to deny their importance, but they could be categorized as the ‘passive’ rather than the ‘active’ dimensions of the University's impact and arise principally from its role as an employer, generator of income and purchaser of goods and services by itself, its employees and its customers (students). For a discussion on the economic impact of universities on their regions, see FloraxR.‘The volatility of economic impacts of higher education institutions on local and regional communities’, paper presented at the First European Conference of Mayors and Rectors of University Towns in Europe (on ‘Regional Impacts of Universities’), University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, 4–7 September 1993.
6.
For an interesting discussion document on how universities might make effective contributions to local and regional development, see PapageorgiouF.O'CinneideM.MeloA., The Role of Higher Education in Encouraging Local and Regional Development, report prepared for the EC's Local Employment Development Action (LEDA) Programme, Local and Regional Development Planning, London, c 1990.
7.
This is one of the EC-supported BICs, or Business Innovation Centres, set up in Objective 1 regions to encourage innovation and the development of new enterprises using modern technologies.
8.
For an extended discussion on how local innovation and technological development strategies maybe developed to create employment, see DineenD.A.Local Innovation and Technological Development Strategies to Generate Employment Growth, report prepared for the EC's Local Employment Development Action (LEDA) Programme, Local and Regional Development Planning, London, 1989.
9.
Quoted from MAC-Company Profile, 1993.
10.
Though a recent decision, announced in the Irish government's budget (8 February 1995), to abolish third-level fees paid by individual students may reverse this lessening dependency.
11.
See Op cit, Ref 1; Op cit, Ref 2; and an earlier preparatory paper on this topic presented at the Siena Conference on ‘Higher Education in the European Community: The Challenges of 1992’ – background paper prepared by O'CallaghanD.F.Dr, 1990. The influence of the Europeanization process on Irish universities is discussed in DineenD.A.‘Europeanisation of Irish universities’, Higher Education, Vol 24, 1992, pp 391–411. Theme reports were prepared as part of the responses to the Memorandum on Higher Education, and of particular relevance is the theme report on ‘Partnership with Economic Life’, published as part of the Synthesis Report, op cit, Ref 2.
