Regional Universities & Regional Communities: Engaging to transcend the ‘Flatlands’

Dr. Luke van der Laan

University of Southern Queensland

“Higher education is in the midst of a major transformation that is fundamentally redefining the relationship of

universities to the broader community”

(Trani & Holsworth, 2010, Universities: Indispensable to Economic and Community Development)

UNIVERSITIES AS DEVELOPERS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL;

UNIVERSITIES AS HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS;

UNIVERSITIES AS PARTNERS IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT;

Post-normal times for Regional Communities

Premise: Imperative of HE to lead in transcending dominant short-term paradigms and open up creative emergence in

regional communities that will impact regional development.

• $1.5 billion direct economic contribution in Queensland (times 3 indirect and induced) (Rolfe etal, 2008)

• 80% QLD exports are from regional areas

• Post-normal times need futures management for a future-orientated environment

• Used Florax 1992, cited in Giesecke Ja & Madden JR, 2006 model for economic impact studies of university expenditure

Regional Development ‘Flatlands’

‘Flatlands’

• Reductionist frameworks for thinking about the future (myopic silos)

• Futures confounded by regulatory inconsistency and the changing nature of knowledge, production and export $’s

Implication:

• Insufficiently understood and problematised change.

• Technology- and Infra-structure led paradigms remain dominant.

Consequence:

• Constrained development: limited coherence / foresight / strategic thinking / strategy.

Leadership Umbrella (van der Laan, 2011)

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‘The Leadership Umbrella’ (van der Laan, 2011)

LEADERSHIP

STRATEGY

USQ: Engaged and Committed

• Increasing sense of place and commitment to engage and lead

• USQ focus on sustainability and the development of social capital, eg C4C – network of over 400 members (but many more examples of USQ commitment)

(i) Community mentoring program TOMNET, Flexi, Rotary, USQ - $500 000 prize from NAB

(ii) NIACE (UK) Book on Regional Community Development

(iii) Masters/Doctoral studies around community development

(iv) Public lectures/annual workshop around community capacity building theme,

(v) Alternative education seminar.

USQ / RDA Pascal Observatory PURE Study: DD &

SW Regions

• USQ / RDA Commissioned study:

PASCAL Universities and Regional Engagement (PURE)

• “Higher Education is a key actor in the revitalisation of communities, in the development of rural areas, and to the competitive strategies in regions” (Trani & Holsworth, 2010)

• Regional economies / Regional development is closely linked to ‘substantial contribution’ by regional universities (Rolfe et al. 2008)

• Convergence of interests

PURE Study: Changing Regions

PURE report notes that certainty in DD & SW Regions is giving way to rapid change and that “The result is anxiety and discomfort about the

future.”

“There is an ‘agony’ amongst leaders to be strategic”

PURE Purpose

• Purpose:

– to report on the results of Consultative Development Group findings

– to set an agenda for action by the key stakeholders.

• Who?

– business, government, community and education, supported by substantial documentation

• Why?

– Pre-emptive focus on challenges for the region

– the possible contributions of tertiary education to

– Foresight to achieve meaningful and purposeful economic, social and environmental progress

PURE Framework

• Principles: – forthright, informed and benevolent leadership;

– widespread collaboration and discussion;

– personal initiative and expertise;

– fairness; and

– knowledge, creativity and innovation.

PURE Results: Tensions and Causes

• Tensions

– Leadership, Planning (strategy), skills for collaboration,

Labour force development, Tyranny of Scale, Environment,

Education, Innovation and Knowledge, The human

dimension

• Causes (“the tectonic plates”)

– Political, land use, infrastructure, human capital, technology,

knowledge creation,

PURE Recommendations

• Exploit national / international ‘laboratory for regional socio economic change’

• Coherent regional leadership (Most significant initiative)

• Coherent Strategy

• Advocacy (capture collaboration rather than chasing scraps)

• Human Capital (build long term skills capacity)

• Knowledge and Innovation (Evidence based direction and point of reference)

“Take control of its future and not have an unwanted future imposed on it from the outside” PURE, Pg5

PURE Need for Narrative

• “There is lot of work to be done in building a narrative in this region. As the PURE report indicates those involved in regional development (TRC, RDA, State govt -DEEWR,USQ) have tended to operate in silos and RDA, instead of some coordinating, facilitative body, has assumed a role of 'distributor of funds'. There is no coherent narrative which defines this region's identity - there's a lot of competition for funds and status.” Stakeholder

• Narratives are powerful strategy drivers. With a joint narrative, excellence is not ad hoc and constrained but assimilated and mainstreamed

PURE – Socio Economic Strategy

“you will realise that you cannot reduce your risk by simply letting the long term take care of itself … for in complex systems, even doing

nothing could have escalating consequences” (Stacey 1992)

• RDA DD SW aim

– legacy of achievements that the region’s residents will value

– contribute to an improvement in the quality of life across the region.

• PURE – need for coherence

• MJA – need for overarching Future Directions Statement

Future Directions

• Formulation of social and economic development strategy for the region

• Embraces a broader systemic approach (refer PURE recommendation)

“Rather no strategy than an ill-founded one”

Thus an overarching statement and narrative links the two reports succinctly.