From left to right. Laura Wardrop and Kristinn Hermannsson, Strathclyde, Dr. Maria Abrieu, The University of Groningen, and Professors Kim Swales and Robert Wright, Strathclyde.
From left to right. Laura Wardrop and Kristinn Hermannsson, Strathclyde, Dr. Maria Abrieu, The University of Groningen, and Professors Kim Swales and Robert Wright, Strathclyde.
The UK-wide Impact of Higher Education Institutions on Regional Economies Initiative, which is co-ordinated from the University of Strathclyde, hosted six special sessions at the Regional Studies Association's (RSA) annual international conference held at the University of Pécs in Hungary.
Undoubtedly there is great interest in this work as all of the special sessions were fully attended and a number of international colleagues expressed interest in studying its final outputs. The conference is seen as an important venue for interdisciplinary exchange between regional policy researchers and, perhaps most importantly, for a discourse between academics and practitioners in the field.
Strathclyde research was well represented at the event as the Fraser of Allander Institute and the Department of Economics run the biggest single research project within the initiative. This work aims to integrate findings from other research projects in the Initiative to estimate the overall impacts of Higher Education Institutions on regional economies, drawing on in-house modelling experience as well as producing new evidence based on econometric analysis. The project is led by Professors Peter McGregor, Kim Swales and Robert Wright. It currently employs two full time researchers, Katerina Lisenkova and Kristinn Hermannsson, and has employed several other researchers on a shorter term basis.
The Initiative is funded by the ESRC and all four of the regional funding bodies, the Scottish Funding Council, Higher Education Funding Council England, Higher Education Funding Council Wales and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. It started in 2007 and is set to finish this year. The funders have emphasised active dissemination and policy engagement from the outset and indeed the research has already benefited from the responses of various policy communities.
However, engagement is particularly important now that the final results of the project are close to fruition. As a part of this, a major international conference is set to take place in Edinburgh next November to mark the end of the initiative.
For further information on the initiative and upcoming events see: