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It is the role of the 21 st century university to future-proof our success. We do this through research, through innovation, and through preparing entrepreneurial students who will graduate to create employment through their ideas.
The university effect
How universities keep the wheels of the new economy turning.
By David Lloyd
In the year I took up the role of vice-chancellor at the University of South Australia, GM Holden, one of Australia’ s most iconic brands, announced it would be closing down its operations in Adelaide in 2017.
It signalled great change in the state’ s economy. South Australia could no longer rely on automotive manufacturing and had four years to plan what would fill that void and drive our economy in the future.
Holden was a manufacturer for almost 60 years. It built the cars that Australians dreamed of owning. It also employed workers, many new to Australia, from every country around the world, and it was the earnings from Holden that paid for hundreds of first-in-family students to attend the University of South Australia.
States like South Australia, with relatively small economies, are often finely balanced – so when an industry is lost, it can feel disastrous.
But it was ever thus. Australia rode on the sheep’ s back for more than 100 years when wool was our main export commodity. In the 1960s, competition from synthetics, rising costs and waning prices on the international market forced wool into the arms of protectionists who still couldn’ t keep it buoyant.
Economies are like that. Industries appear, they grow, they stagnate and then they die as progress determines new realities. Now we are living in the midst of a digital revolution, and technology is shaping the world in which we live, work and learn.
GROWING OUR ECONOMY All universities encourage a spirit of inquiry; UniSA as Australia’ s University of Enterprise takes very seriously our role in helping to grow and re-shape our economy. We focus on end-user needs, first by providing the best education we can give to our students, and then by doing the most innovative and real-world connected research possible.
We, along with the state’ s two other universities, have a responsibility to help add value to the economy. We each have a responsibility to help change the state from an economy where traditional industries like manufacturing thrived, to one where knowledge industries flourish, particularly in areas this state is depending on to drive innovation and create jobs: health services, defence, advanced manufacturing, education, tourism, premium food and wine, and sustainability.
Of course, key to success in any industry are the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and universities play a key role in helping to develop the technical expertise, innovation and creativity that will build and grow all of those industries.
Because of our rich history through our antecedent institutions, such as the South Australian Institute of Technology, we have built a series of more than 2500 working partnerships with business, industry and the professions to guide their business growth and to make sure that we are properly educating the future professionals who will eventually add value to those businesses.
Just to give you some examples of how academic expertise can be put to work at building a nation or a state’ s economy, UniSA’ s Australian Centre for Business Growth delivers programs that are giving executives the knowledge and skills they need to develop as leaders, accelerate company growth and compete in a global marketplace.
The ANZ Business Growth Program helps the bank’ s small and medium company clients to identify new opportunities and tackle existing challenges. Together with 67 companies taking part in the South Australian government sponsored Growing South Australia’ s Companies program, in the 1 – 3 years since attending the workshops, the companies reported growth of over $ 400 million in revenue, $ 65 million in profit, and between them added almost 800 jobs. It is one tangible outcome from university-industry collaboration.
We have also added our expertise to a partnership with the South Australian government and anchor industry partner DXC Technology( formerly Hewlett Packard Enterprise). The result of that partnership is the Innovation and Collaboration Centre( ICC), which provides a multidisciplinary environment where small and medium enterprises( SMEs), industry organisations, entrepreneurs and students can access a wide range of business, design and marketing services and expertise to explore new ideas for ICT businesses and products.
With a focus on building the next generation of professionals, together we also developed and launched a four-year honours degree in IT and business informatics, with paid internships offered to students in DXC during the course of their studies.
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