E-Magazine
Steve Moore
I remember attending an AC21 conference at the University of Warwick a few years ago whose primary theme was about international co-operation in research and knowledge transfer. Like delegates at most conferences, I paused afterwards to decide what I had gained from attending. The messages I came away with were very simple: In the future universities should collaborate as much as possible and, if you’re involved in knowledge transfer – don’t do it for the short term income – do it for the overall added value which co-operation and collaboration can bring to the institution.
That message has stuck with me ever since and having been fortunate to have been national programme manager for one of the Hefce HEIF3 funded collaborations of 13 universities called SPEED (Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education), I and my colleagues have had these principles reinforced by experience and have endeavoured to keep them in mind when looking at our strategies for other enterprise activity.
Late in 2008, the European Commission, Directorate for Enterprise and Industry confirmed the intended launch of a pilot programme called Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. Essentially EYE is a mentoring programme matching young entrepreneurs (in the sense of new to entrepreneurial activity) with established counterparts in another EU country for a 1-6 month period. Despite the worsening economic situation, we saw this as both very exciting and, at the levels of financial engagement, relatively low risk. Consequently we, along with about 100 other HE and business organisations, formed ourselves into multi-national partnerships each of 2-8 different countries. Our own partnership, (demonstrating my penchant for emotive acronyms, was called EPICentRE European Partnerships in Centres of Regional Excellence), saw us joined by Business Schools from Lithuania and Poland, with whom we had not previously collaborated, to act as intermediate organisations to deliver some 45 mobility placements essentially between ourselves and any other of the 27 member states.
As the recession deepened, many of us began to wonder about our wisdom in becoming involved in an ambitious, challenging and somewhat experimental programme, particularly when the management and information systems were being developed alongside the promotion and implementation of the first exchanges. Pressure to support local graduate employment increased, the £:€ exchange rate moved alarmingly, the public sector started to have fiscal concerns and businesses began to worry about surviving rather than becoming involved in support of a rather esoteric project – when you’re up to your neck, corporate social responsibility is a very hard sell. Whilst a number of the participating organisations found the going too tough, we decided to persevere and despite having to creatively maintain adequate staff resources, I believe that we have gained immensely from our engagement and created an internationalisation pathway which will provide considerable added value for the future.
We have become involved in what I believe will develop into very powerful network. Although the Commission have developed on-line tools for the processes involved, most successful placements have resulted from the positive interactions of practitioners in different countries, talking to each other, and working collaboratively to match and manage the relationship between the two active participants. Suddenly we have more than casual contacts met at a conference, we have colleagues in over 20 other countries offering us a route and a direct telephone line into other HE’s, Chambers of Commerce, Incubation Centres and Regional Agencies around Europe together with an insight into their particular interests and areas of influence. Through the workshops organised by the Commission, positive personal working relationships have developed which is how, at the end of the day, institutional to institutional relationships develop.
We ourselves have kept up the momentum, talking to other institutions about joining future expanded networks and looking to build on the relationships already established. Even just one year on, we have working partnerships within other programmes, developing several enterprise themes across the continent. We have begun to use the facility provided by these contacts to support student exchanges, to find opportunities for collaborative post graduate teaching and for promoting research activities of mutual interest.
Although the recession has constrained the pace of development and distorted some of the outcomes, the programme is gaining momentum. Italy and Spain are the countries most engaged although, at the time of writing, the UK is third in terms of placements achieved. To cover all 27 countries, the programme runs with English as the generally accepted common language and the UK remains the most popular preferred destination for incoming entrepreneurs looking to gain experience and guidance. Whilst most will return to their home countries after a brief stay, owner managers in our UK SME’s are gaining valuable insights into business prospects in other countries from enthusiastic entrepreneurs who often bring refreshing new ideas with them.
The Commission have obviously been pleased with the initial outcomes and are building a portfolio of case studies. At a recent workshop, it was indicated that proposals were being drawn up to be laid before the European Parliament for the FP8 funding cycle, to make EYE a major element of the economic stimulation measures which will be needed in the rapidly changing global economy. As such, the programme could potentially rival the Erasmus student mobility programme and support many thousands of interactions.
The EYE programme continues with annual cycles planned through to 2013 to allow the continuing development of the infrastructure for such a major activity.
For a regional and vocationally focused university which, although it carries out good teaching and applied research, inevitably finds it difficult to ‘stand out from the crowd’, international enterprise offers not only a significant additional route to supplement the efforts of its overseas recruitment team but can also feed directly into Learning and Teaching and support research and other knowledge transfer activities.
Steve Moore, University of Wolverhampton Business School
Whilst the activities described below reflect one aspect of the University’s activities, any opinions expressed are those of the author