Ivory towers neglect locals

HIGHER education and training bodies must be committed to their communities if they are to work well together, a report has found, writes Harriet Swain.

The best practice report, for the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Education and Employment, said growing interest in skills and the importance of local economies had recently encouraged links between universities and training and enterprise councils. But each needed a clear understanding of the other's mission, regular meetings, shared resources and joint decision-making if they were to make these links successful.

Relationships were best when the higher education institution took its local aims seriously and when TECS put education and local economic partnerships top of their agenda. People were vital to the partnership. Links tended to be strongest when senior liaison staff had worked together in previous jobs for other organisations or had similar employment backgrounds. They were handicapped by entrenched attitudes over the ideological basis of TECs and "ivory tower" nature of universities. Researchers, who carried out surveys and interviews across England in 1995/96, found that collaboration had been patchy.

Funding was complex and too nationally determined. It could not secure long-term links on its own. Joint planning was just as important. A conference next Wednesday organised by HEFCE and the TEC National Council will explore other ways of establishing links between higher education institutions, employers and local communities.