Thank you for inviting me to speak today. My comments reflect the contacts I have had over the past couple of months as UUK President, as well as my own experiences in the establishment of London's higher education consortium.

Over the past couple of months, I have been visiting regional associations across England, to find out more about how they are progressing their work, and developing the partnerships necessary to successfully meet the expectations of the various stakeholders in HE - students, academics, employers, professional bodies, and of course, Government. And the clear message is that there is no single formula or way of delivering the needs of these stakeholders. Meeting the needs of the individuals and the organisations higher education serves requires flexibility and diversity.

Introduction

So, the answer to the question posed in the title of my talk is almost certainly 'no'.

Some of you will be familiar with the recent series of reports about English universities' contributions to their regions that UUK published in the summer. The ten reports outlined higher education activities in: regional competitiveness, urban and rural regeneration, lifelong learning and employability, social wellbeing and health, sustainability and the environment, and regional decision-making. The reports demonstrated the breadth and depth of the regional commitment of universities, and make clear just how wide-ranging are the contributions and the roles of higher education.

They also indicated the size, mission, subject mix and history of higher education institutions - from large, civic universities with up to 30,000 students, to small, specialist colleges with as few as 140 students. It is this very range of organisations that means students in England can enjoy an environment and educational programme that fits their needs and aspirations.

That range was also recognised in HEFCE's regional statement earlier this year which stated that:

And Government ministers have similarly made public their confidence in a higher education system that is built around diverse institutions pursuing excellence in different ways.

So there is scope for the third mission to be adapted to the needs of the regional communities universities serve. Although I will be focussing on regional economies and societies within England, these principles also apply to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where much ground-breaking work with their regional and national communities has already been done.

The third mission

Universities have seen their roles primarily in terms of teaching and research - they educate and train people with the skills they need to participate fully in society and give them the skills employers need.

They enable the UK to punch above its weight in terms of research, not only to support high quality teaching, but also setting up countless spin off companies in areas such as satellite technology, biotechnology and robotics. And this is largely the expectation of the rest of society.

But universities are also reaching into their communities, getting their hands dirty by combating social exclusion and improving cultural understanding in their regions. The world is changing and universities are changing as well. In places as diverse as Middlesborough and Tower Hamlets, university staff lead regeneration companies, act as governors of schools and colleges, and are active in community groups. Their expertise is called on by their Regional Development Agencies and local businesses, they train all of the nation's health professionals, and they enhance the culture and well being in their regions.

Universities have been doing these things for many years, but there is now a clear recognition that this work should be explicitly funded and encouraged. And there has been an increasing expectation within the policy community and the general population, that universities should contribute to the regions in which they are based. The HEFCE has focussed particularly on the exchange of knowledge between higher education and business, and recognised the fact that the driver for many third stream activities is institutions' local or regional mission.

The result in England has been new sources of funding, not only from DFES, but from other government departments with an interest in university outputs as well. The Higher Education Innovation Fund, which incorporates the Higher Education Reach-out to business and the Community

Fund, is a partnership between the Departments of Trade and Industry, OST and DFES. The Innovation Fund is worth £140 million over 3 years, and is designed to be a third stream of funding which will enable universities and colleges to increase their capacity to respond to the needs of the community and of business.

It is not the only source of third mission funds - others are designed with similar outcomes in mind - University Challenge, the Science Enterprise Challenge, the Public Sector Research Exploitation Fund, and the HE Active Community Fund seek to offer institutions choices about the funding programmes which meet their needs. The challenge for universities is to make the current activities and good practices that these funding sources support, permanent and more central to their mainstream missions. The challenge for government is to clarify how third mission funding will be made permanent, and remove the uncertainties that prevent some universities from making the longer term commitment necessary for these activities to make a substantive difference.

Widening participation/social inclusion

The potential for universities to support their local labour markets has long been recognised - many of the nineteenth century English civic universities were set up with the explicit aim of providing a source of engineers for their local manufacturing industries. The scale of the university contribution has changed radically since then.

Estelle Morris recently reinforced the pledge that the Government made shortly before the General Election, that 50 per cent of under 30s would enter higher education by 2010. It is one of the highest priorities on the Government's agenda. It is seen as vital if Britain is to compete on the world stage as a high-value-added and high skills economy. We will need investment in skills, investment in education and increasing participation in higher education.

Labour market forecasts suggest that between 1999 and 2010 there will be a growth of 1.73 million jobs in those occupations that typically recruit graduates - managers, associate professionals etc. There will also be new careers and professions opening up, and seeking education - you have already seen this here in the South West - a degree in Surf Science and Technology, launched because of a demand by local employers in Plymouth for the skilled graduates it delivers, with sponsorship from industry to prove it. So whereas in the past, a 50% participation rate might have been seen as unrealistic. Now it is crucial to the economy. It is also crucial in unlocking the potential of the poorer sections of society, and raising expectations and levels of prosperity in areas of deprivation. And as in many other things, universities share a common interest in promoting prosperity and attracting talented individuals from all parts of society.

Earlier, I referred to the changes in the world at large and in higher education. Over the last ten to twenty years, the university sector has shifted from being an elite system to being something much wider, something much more important to many more people. And as universities take on a more central position, and their responsibilities grow, they don't just act to improve the way their students think, but to raise aspirations by engaging in their communities to try to combat social exclusion, and to build and extend the cultural life and capacity of their towns.

About 70% of the children from higher socio-economic groups go on to higher education compared to somewhere between 13 and 14 percent from families from lower socio-economic backgrounds. So universities are working hard to ensure that they reach out to those who do not have any tradition of higher education, to encourage them to raise their aspirations, and extend their career choices. Universities' partners in these activities are often schools and further education colleges within a region or locality. The University of Northumbria in Newcastle is one of almost 70 universities around the country to run a summer school for youngsters. Northumbria's summer school included a visit to the Stadium of Light, home to Sunderland Football Club to demonstrate the wide range of professional skills needed in a modern football club, such as marketing, finance, catering and education.

Employability

Extending opportunities and enhancing skill levels is one of the major drivers behind the RDA/higher education relationship, and RDAs have made clear their views about the key role of the higher education sector in achieving their Regional Economic Strategies. There are considerable regional variations in the English labour markets, and in particular in the requirement for knowledge intensive higher level skills. In some regions, there is such a demand for graduates that regions become net importers: while others export their graduates. Whatever the reasons for these flows - and they are complex - universities produce graduates whose skills can upgrade the labour market in the region where they are employed. Those graduates can build connections with small firms, which in the past may not have traditionally employed graduates, and have a limited conception of what they can offer. With a graduate presence comes new ideas, technology transfer, and an entrepreneurial approach. Many universities regard business awareness as a key component of their degree courses, and ensure that their students have an awareness of the range of mentoring, networking, incubation and financial packages available to them. This is a particularly significant part of the package in peripheral regions, where graduate entrepreneurship has the ability to raise the demand for graduate skills.

The HEFCE's analysis of universities' 3 year learning and teaching strategies showed just how important employability issues are: 'innovation emphasising employability, work experience and key skills.' ranked second in importance by institutions. Employability criteria were also used by the Council in its assessment of the bids for additional student numbers for 2001-02. However, the RDA/university parthernship in promoting employability and entrepreneurship is in its early stages; its results will take time to feed into the workplace, and when they do, they will reflect regional concerns and priorities.

Knowledge transfer/wealth generation

I referred to the importance of knowledge transfer in terms of graduate employability, because that is likely to be one of the key contributors in the future. But the traditional approach to knowledge transfer has tended to focus on big science projects, which require large scale investment and lead to new industries and subsequent economic growth. These are still important concerns, but in future, they may not be the main drivers - as the changes in manufacturing across the world have shown, the essential ingredient is new concepts. Information and automation were not the main stimuli for changes in the world of manufacturing - the most important factor has been the new theories about manufacturing. And universities' staff and students are likely to be some of the major sources of those new ideas and innovation, not only in industry, science, and technology, but also in healthcare and other quality of life and cultural services.

So the emphasis on developing links with business and industry will need to be extended to other aspects of the community. This presents a challenge for government and other funders, in terms of devising funding mechanisms that can support and sustain the differing nature and range of activities that might result.

Programmes like HEROBAC have been successful in meeting some of those business and industry needs and activities - funding for centres like Exeter's Innovation Centre, which houses R&D businesses based on biotechnology, software, advanced engineering and the internet, are a start. They have offered new ways of accessing university expertise and services to the commercial sector. But much more needs to be done to promote the wider public's understanding of the breadth of expertise universities can offer - their contribution to healthcare, their expertise in sustainability and environmental issues, their contribution to cultural and leisure activities, and service sectors such as tourism and the performing arts. Such service industries are becoming major employers and wealth generators and are essential aspects of quality of life in Britain.

Cultural contributions

Take for instance the performing arts in London - 11.5 m people went to London theatres in 1997, compared with 4 million at league football matches. And the creative industries in London are estimated to generate between £16 and £20 billion a year for London's economy. Universities are vital in sustaining these activities across the country - by providing both the physical infrastructure - concert halls, theatres, sports facilities, and the staff with the expertise to prepare, organise and develop programmes for students and others in the community. If we want to have successful sports teams representing the country, you need well educated sports scientists, for example. And is in universities that these staff are prepared.

Looking across the country, universities are responsible for maintaining and developing some of our most important collections, and making sure that public access continues. Museums and galleries such as the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge; the Ashmolean in Oxford; and the Manchester Museum provide a priceless contribution to the cultural life of the country and their regions.

Conclusions

Universities are clearly performing many roles and performing them well. But, despite this, they have too often been the poor relations of the education world. It is pretty tough for universities to continue with performing the wide range of our functions to the high standard we have in the past unless we have the resources to do so. What the country needs, and Government seems to be recognising, is a properly resourced university sector. That means both re-dressing under-funding in teaching and research, and ensuring that the extension of universities' third mission is adequately funded.

The indicators are positive - our messages to government are starting to get through. We must continue to focus on the partnerships and missions that make UK higher education attractive and respected in the rest of the world. The third mission may not be regional for all - for some it may be international, national, sub-regional or local. In many cases the boundaries will be permeable. There will be a great range of roles that HEIs can appropriately play in their regions, but responsibility should continue to rest with each institution to determine which role best suits its own mission and circumstances.