News

VC Highlights Economic Role of Universities

(3 February 2005)

Vice Chancellor Sir Kenneth Calman has commented on a news report (The Journal 29 January 2005) on the findings of a survey that indicated a dark social and industrial outlook for the North East.

In a letter published in The Journal on 2nd February he highlighted the importance of universities for the region, and their role in sustaining and improving the local economy.

He wrote:

Amid the latest gloomy forecasts about the industrial and social outlook of the North East, (The Journal 29 January) we need to keep sight of the excellent work in the region's universities that feeds into the economy. Academic research not only helps to sustain established knowledge-based businesses through research and development partnerships. It is also increasingly spinning out new job-creating enterprises as scientific and other discoveries are turned into commercial activity. Teaching programmes help to widen access to students from the region, retain good graduates in the North East and generally raise the qualifications level of the workforce. Durham University, with its £30 million research income and projects like the CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) in Computing announced last week, is a partner in many regeneration schemes. They range from trans-regional level such as the Northern Way that is working to reduce the gap in output between the North and the rest of the UK, to local areas like the new Stockton-Middlesbrough Initiative. Our universities are both a route for inward investment and a pro-active source of economic fuel.

Letter to The Journal re economic outlook (copied to reporter Ross Smith Ross.smith@ncjmedia.co.uk) Published 2.2.05