1 Global Development Initiative Higher Education and International Development April 10-11, 2008 Research Universities and Development: Views from Latin.

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Global Development InitiativeHigher Education and International Development

April 10-11, 2008

Research Universities and Development: Views from Latin America

Jorge Balan

Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad

Buenos Aires, Argentina

[email protected]

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OUTLINE

• International Development: from the 1950s to the MDG paradigm

• A (re)newed vision for the university: The Third Mission.

• Building research capacity in Latin America• Conceptual underpinnings: Research Mode 2

and the Triple Helix• R&D and university research: global trends • Asian/Latin American contrasts • Views from Latin America

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DEVELOPMENT: THE NEW CONSENSUS

• From (narrow) economics to multidisciplinary perspectives• People focused Human Development (Human Development Index

Rankings and Human Development Report)• Increasingly incorporating human rights, conflict resolution, peace

and peace-building –the construction of sustainable development• Education for All (1990), the Millennium Declaration (2000) and

MDG: universal literacy and poverty reduction as a part of a broader agenda for sustainable development

• Not without its critics• MDG as the international standard of reference for measuring and

tracking improvements in the human condition in developing countries by international agencies

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UNIVERSITIES: A (RE)NEWED VISION

UN Millennium Project’s Task force on Science, Technology, and Innovation

Key areas for policy action1. Improving infrastructure services (power,

transportation, telecom)2. Improving higher education in science and

technology – redefining role of universities3. Promoting business activities in science, technology,

innovation4. Improving policy environment (trade, IP, foreign

investment)5. Focus on underfunded research for development

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REDEFINING ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES

• A valuable resource for business and industry

• Contributors to regional economic revival and high-tech growth through R&D, spin-off firms, technology parks and business incubators, entrepreneurial training

• The “Third Mission” plus –feedback loops to research and teaching

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BUT…• Universities and other HE institutions need to reform to increase

their academic capabilities to contribute to development• Academic capabilities are related to new/expanded functions (i.e.,

research, graduate training) but also to organizational reforms leading to greater efficiency and sustainability

• Higher education reforms –top down and bottom up- have a long history, but since the 1980s became more radical and heavily influenced by “new management” theories and practices, worldwide

• Higher education reforms –the new contract between governments and higher education

• Higher education reforms –institutional differentiation and the quest to build research universities in the South

• Higher education, development, and poverty alleviation: what role for the research university?

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THIRD MISSION: OLD AND NEW

• From “extension” in the 50s and 60s –public university services to government and community, to

• “Third Mission” in the 2000s–broad range of market-driven activities performed by entrepreneurial units under the leadership of entrepreneurial faculty

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EXTENSION VERSUS THIRD MISSION

“…extension meant the projection of a university’s knowledge resources onto the disadvantaged, the marginalized, and the disenfranchised, with aims of social development, community building, and the deepening of democracy, but now extension has become a business unit catering to the cultural, educational, and recreational demands of firms and individuals in the upper segments of society.”

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MARKET, MISSION, AND THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

• The public mission lies in final outcomes: leadership training, public nature of knowledge, innovation, growth

• The public mission lies in cross-subsidies: who pays for what?

• The public mission lies in inputs: equal opportunities and social mobility

• The public mission lies in the institutional “fit”: the university in (national/regional) development strategy

• Making the case for a public mission and making it sustainable

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RESEARCH WITHIN ACADEMIA: NEW CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS

1. Research modes: Mode 1 vs Mode 2

2. The Triple Helix: government, industry, university.

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MODE 1

• MODE 1: “Old paradigm of scientific discovery characterized by the hegemony of disciplinary science, with its strong sense of an internal hierarchy between the disciplines and driven by the autonomy of scientists and their host institutions, the universities, was being superseded –but not replaced—by a new paradigm of knowledge production”: Mode 2

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MODE 2

• MODE 2: “socially distributed, application-oriented, transdisciplinary, and subject to multiple accountabilities.” “Knowledge is generated in the context of application, where a range of theoretical perspectives and practical methodologies to solve problems are mobilized.”

The Triple Helix

• The triangular relationship between state, university, and industry: old and new

• Higher education, research, and industrial development as policy realms

• Triple Helix: the uses of a Model

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University entrepreneurship

1. Decline/change in public funding, new public management

2. Increased competition for resources

3. Differentiation of (public) mission

4. Organizational convergence: are university and business becoming alike?

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R&D: GLOBAL TRENDS About 80% of all R&D expenditures takes place

among OECD countries –45% just in the US and Japan.

But in 2005 China was the third largest country in R&D ($115 billion) and India and Korea are within the largest 10, Brazil is next.

R&D intensity: wealthy economies spend up to 3% of GDP, developing countries 1%

R&D: (relative) decline in government funding, increase in performance by industry and academia.

R&D mobility: multinational corporations, from brain drain to (recent, selective) brain gain, international co-authorship

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Building research university: Historical models

• The US model before and after WWII• Research and industry: the Japanese/Korean models.• Research by government institutes: the continental model, the

soviet and Chinese versions. • Research into academia: recent policy to build research within the

university• Government and steering of higher education: focus on research

universities and expanding access.• Incentives for university-industry collaboration.• Large scale international student outflow (US/UK), recently

reversed.• Growing public and private investment in Higher Ed

World-Class Worldwide

• The new competitive context: ratings and rankings

• Science policy and higher education policy: why competing internationally?

• The policy and politics of differentiation: Asian and Latin American cases contrasted

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Latin American Case Studies

• The Latin American/European Paradox: good quality academic research, low intensity Mode 2 research

• Four areas, four countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico)

• Case studies of success (Mode 1 and Mode 2)

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Selected results

• Diversified funding is key: virtue or necessity, public and private

• Favorable changes in policy environment, but…• Confrontation with university rules and regulations• Institutionally de-centered, even marginal• Strong academic leadership with entrepreneurial

skills• Team work & group identity• Academic values/career prevail –narrow academic

policies for promotion• Low emphasis/experience in IPR/patenting: is

patenting that important?

The new horizon

• Higher education and society: a new contract

• Building a new legitimacy for the research enterprise in developing countries

• Issues of public accountability

• Sustainability of the research enterprise in a global economy