In our modern-day knowledge economy universities are the missing middle

What will the role of universities be in the future?

The role of universities as knowledge producers is increasingly valued in this climate with an emphasis upon their relationships with businesses, governments and society in general. Priority is increasingly being given to ‘social robustness’, ‘relevance’, ‘user engagement’ and ‘knowledge transfer’. The roles and functions of the university in the knowledge economy are diverse and act at different levels of scale. On the one hand research needs to be conducted at an international level in order to meet criteria of world-class excellence. On the other hand it also needs to be embedded in local and regional contexts if the kinds of economic, social and environmental benefits expected from knowledge are to be realised. Universities are thus places of different expectations. This gives rise to a need to establish their distinctiveness in order to avoid becoming sites of activities that could take place in other contexts. Without this distinctiveness in place, what is their future and why would people wish to work there?

Knowledge exchange needs an understanding of use in context

Knowledge needs to be actively received, understood and interpreted. The reception of research requires more consideration than has been provided thus far. Without some understanding of use in context – which is not a one-way relation of research to practice, but also of practice informing research – exchange is an activity without substantial benefit. Knowledge exchange does not therefore take place between two separate spheres of activity, but is a space of communication where different cultures of enquiry and reception can engage, through drawing upon different forms of knowledge exchange

Universities as the ‘missing middle’

This research has found that spaces of communication between cultures of enquiry and cultures of reception do not readily exist. Populating the ‘missing middle’ requires active intermediation between universities and different social interests in order to mutually constitute a shared understanding of the need for knowledge exchange.

Recommendations for national policy

The focus needs to be on the creation of new agendas that are sensitive to different places, not simple solutions proposed at national level with an indifference to the contexts of their implementation. National policy should allow for flexibility at a sub-national level to set up and implement active intermediaries that are owned by different parties. Regional and local experiences should then feed through to national policy initiatives, particularly in light of the emphasis on regional-specific or place-based approaches.