Insider Media Limited

Universities may have to fill the gap left by the demise of many of the region’s business support organisations, including regional development agency (RDA) Advantage West Midlands.

That was the view of the panellists at Insider’s Business of Education Forum, held in The Great Hall at the University of Birmingham.

Speakers at the event - staged to discuss links between business and education - were largely sceptical about the ability of the RDA’s replacement, the local enterprise partnership (LEP), to provide much in the way of business support.

But they suggested there is a key role for universities to play.

Angela Maxwell, OBE, an advisory board member at Birmingham Business School and a director of consultancy Acuwomen, said: “I think we are reliant on universities to fill that gap. The universities need to enable SMEs to work with the knowledge base in a way they never have before. But we also need to make sure businesses know exactly what to expect from universities so that it’s not just one size fits all. We are in danger of expecting universities to provide too much.”

Ken Young, technical director of the Manufacturing Technology Centre at Ansty Park, said: “The loss of AWM funding is a problem. It enabled universities to get very close to industry. But I think there are ways that universities can get closer to business. We need to get students working on projects that have direct relevance to businesses and for them to have access to academics.

"I think we just have to be a bit more imaginative. But it doesn’t just have to be a quick fix. Businesses need to look further ahead. They need to use this link to try and solve problems that you haven’t got yet but you know you will have in the future. Universities are now set up to do that.”

Meanwhile, Dr Tim Dafforn, director of knowledge transfers in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham, suggested the Science City initiative - which brings together a number of the region’s universities - still has a big role to play. “There’s a lot of business engagement support around that,” he said.