A New Role for Universities

Our response was two-fold. First we recruited nineteen post-graduate students to follow up the initial report and identify solutions. Their research is being conducted in the region, and with those affected by the problems they seek to solve. They will report progressively on their results, reducing the normal dissemination time-cycle. They will have access to local, often informal or undocumented data, available only on the spot. They are hosted and co-supervised by local industry or government agencies. This exemplifies a new way of working in collaboration and partnership with others and identification of research agendas by others.

The second component of the response was to take the education and training needed to the region. Capital investment is minimal, facilitated by interactive communication technologies and flexible delivery modes, although supplemented by RMIT staff on a face-to-face basis. Such provision contributes directly to increased skill levels in the region, needed to support new developments, and helps to retain young people within the region. Further, the applied and practical nature of RMIT’s courses means that work-based or field-based projects are integral. The region’s needs are a focus for undergraduate students in programs delivered in the region, and for city-based students, providing another consultancy input to the region.

This example shows how a university can operate to contribute to the solution of problems in a particular community. The research questions were posed by players external to RMIT’s research community but the results of that research will increase innovation in that region and may lead to new knowledge that can be applied in other settings. In this the university continues to play the role of ‘knowledge broker’. This is both in terms of recruiting researchers to undertake the work and building a network of resource support for that research in the region and in terms of the ultimate sharing of this new knowledge to other settings. It shows too that its contribution to innovation can be made through different actors within the university community – researchers, teachers, post-graduate students, undergraduate students.

Conclusion

Innovation is a complex phenomenon involving adoption of different types of change by people. Stimulating ideas and, encouraging people to take risks, require supportive environments for both individuals and groups. Having people take them up depends on managerial strategies, organisational cultures and existing skill levels and systems. National policy must demonstrate that innovation is non-linear and exists within a system. It must recognise the importance of the organisational and personal contributions to innovation. While support for research and technological development and for investment in innovation remain central planks of an innovation policy, these need to be balanced by support for creation of innovative cultures, innovation in organisations and new approaches to teaching and learning at all stages of the education system. Universities have a critical role to play in this, both in the complementary relationship between technological change and system and process change in innovation, and in developing new and innovative approaches to the educational task.