universities facing a "new academic revolution" says us academic

A conference being organised by the Fulbright Commission and supported by the Higher Education Authority on "The Future of the University - the Transatlantic Dialogue" will be told today (Thursday, 4 March 2004) by a leading American academic that Universities throughout the world are entering a new phase in their evolution. Dr. Henry Etzkowitz, Director of the Science Policy Institute at the State University of New York will outline that universities must become much more explicit agents of economic development while at the same time retaining their traditional functions of teaching and research.

Dr. Etzkowitz explains

"It is this capitalisation of knowledge that is at the heart of a new mission for the university linking universities to users of knowledge more tightly and establishing the university as an economic actor in its own right."

This transformation to the "entrepreneurial university" is encapsulated by Dr. Etzkowitz in his description entitled the "Triple Helix" - linking university-industry-government. This interaction he sees, as key to improving the conditions for innovation in a knowledge-based society.

In his forthcoming book "Triple Helix: The New Dynamics of Innovation", Dr. Etzkowitz argues that

"as each new mission is incorporated within the university, it restructures how the previous one is carried out ... ... ..Rather than being seen as separate functions (teaching, research and economic development), each mission becomes interrelated with the other, although not without controversy and persisting tension."

The Conference is being opened by Professor Patrick Fottrell, Chairman of the Fulbright Commission:

"The Irish-American partnership, which was so important to Ireland's economic development over the past thirty years, will be even more important as Ireland moves to a knowledge-based economy. The Fulbright Commission is uniquely placed to contribute to this development. Since the Fulbright Programme was established in Ireland in 1957, over 550 Irish students and scholars have gone to colleges across the US. Over the same period around 370 US students and scholars have come to Irish colleges and research institutes."

Dr. Don Thornhill, HEA Chairman and a contributor to the Conference comments

"Higher education will continue to have a role in helping students develop to their full potential and in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, but increasingly it also has a role as a means of achieving important public policy objectives."