Reconcilable differences
The town and gown idea of universities working in isolation from the larger community may be a thing of the past but there is still a feeling that more could be done by our seats of learning to boost the local economy.
For all of the business consultancy services set up by universities (p28 of Midlands Business Insider November 2009); for all of the cutting-edge research and development (R&D) carried out; and for all of the universitylinked science parks and incubator facilities, there still remain the mutterings from the business community that more could be done.
Well, the good news is that more is being done in the shape of knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs). The idea of KTPs isn’t new. A graduate (sometimes referred to as the associate) is recruited to work at a company on a project that’s central to its development, supported by an academic mentor. Participating companies will also have access to all resources at the university and the graduate’s salary is part-subsidised.
But it is fair to say that a new push should make KTPs more widely available. Lord Stafford, founder of the Lord Stafford Awards, which reward businesses and universities that work closely together to positive effect, believes KTPs are an important plank in rebuilding the regional economy.
“The Midlands has an enviable track record in innovation – introducing the jet engine, ibuprofen, the dictionary and LED technology – and now is the time to create our next legacy,” he says. “There is plenty of investment in R&D but just 7 per cent ofWest Midlands and 4 per cent of East Midlands’ turnover relates to new or improved products compared with an average of 17 per cent for the rest of the UK. This is where business and academia working together is so important.”
Lord Stafford makes the point that companies – hamstrung by rising costs and poor cash flow – are finding it even harder to invest in development work, yet most are still not accessing the research and knowledge of nearby universities.
“One successful way of maximising this expertise is through KTPs,” he says. “Why it works really well is that the relationship is fairly intensive and the associate gets under the skin of the business so they can see how their skills and experience can have a real impact on the company’s bottom line.”
Lord Stafford’s view is obviously shared by the government, which is investing millions of pounds in KTPs. The idea is that a regional university should oversee its own KTP scheme and that of other universities in the area.
The chosen clearing house in the West Midlands is the University ofWolverhampton, which has been given a £24.3m cash injection to boost the number of KTPs available in the region. Thanks to funding from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, the European Regional Development Fund and the Technology Strategy Board, universities across the region will work with businesses on projects to increase their competitiveness, productivity and, ultimately, safeguard jobs.
Wolverhampton will lead a consortium of all 12 regional universities to increase the number of partnerships from 70 to 210 over the next three years. It is overseeing the setting up of the classic KTPs, which last between 12 and 36 months. The regional KTP manager is Marc Fleetham, who is employed by the University of Wolverhampton but spends 70 per cent of his time on the regional KTP programme. He says: “The scheme could not have come at a better time as companies are facing tough times. We are delighted to have been awarded the funding to develop KTPs in the region. The skills and expertise atWest Midlands universities are important to the development of the region and I would encourage companies to get in touch with their local university.”
Fleetham told Insider his role will involve making sure the universities are hitting their targets.
Arguably, KTPs have the biggest impact in small businesses, where, as Lord Stafford says, the money isn’t there for graduate recruitment and R&D.
“They get a graduate working on a commercial project. The graduate is the project manager and an academic works with them two days a month,” Fleetham says. “We get a wishlist from a company about its goals and aspirations. The company partners with a specific university. They co-write the application and try to recruit the person together. The idea is the embedding of knowledge into a business to make it more profitable.”
And it seems to work. Fleetham says 88 per cent of graduates are offered a full-time position by the company at the end of the KTP. For a one to three-year KTP, it costs a company £17,300 per year plus VAT. Because of the government subsidy – of up to 67 per cent of project costs – they can offer a graduate a salary of £22,000 a year and provide money for travel, training and equipment.
But whether all universities are as keen on the programme as the University of Wolverhampton is questionable. “We are lucky in that the vice-chancellor is passionate about engaging with businesses,” says Fleetham. “Some of more established universities are more focused on research but everybody is engaging. KTPs are available to any business. An application could be for embedding new technology, integrating new services, new products or marketing.”
Dr Bruce Johns, director of external partnerships at Newman University College in Birmingham, is also gearing up for KTPs, saying: “We are trying to set up collaborative projects. It is incontestable that universities are prime sources of expertise and perhaps in the past we have not been that good at making that available to the wider economy.”
Newman’s focus has been on working with the public and voluntary sectors, and Johns says he would like to make KTPs available to people in these sectors: “It seems clear that social entrepreneurs are eligible. The public sector is a bit more constrained but if they are setting up activity and it links to a commercial arm we could look at that,” he says.
“We have an innovative third sector incubation scheme where we take fledgling organisations to nurture them from the point of development. We are seeing if we could bring KTP opportunities to them.”
Johns believes the town and gown idea is being eroded. “Universities and business have tended to speak different languages and it has been a learning curve, but there are signs that the gap is being breached,” he says.
In the East Midlands, Nottingham Trent University is offering the shorter KTP, which can offer solutions to tactical issues. Projects run for between ten and 40 weeks and can be stand-alone or run in parallel with a classic KTP. The associate can be an existing company or university employee and projects can be run on a part-time basis.
