Anchors of Creativity: How Do Public Universities Create Competitive and Cohesive Communities?

I have pulled a few highlights from a report authored by Meric Gertler and Tara Vinodria in 2004 entitled Anchors of Creativity: How Do Public Universities Create Competitive and Cohesive Communities? (http://www.utoronto.ca/president/04conference/downloads/gertler.pdf)

Here are several parts that could be useful in assessing the importance of universities to communities.

Unquestionably, there is an important role for the university in bolstering the competitiveness of regions, provinces, and the nation through these types of initiatives. However, the role of the university must be seen in its wider societal context. As a key institution in a knowledge-based economy, the university plays multiple roles, reaching well beyond this narrow view of the university as ‘knowledge factory’. (p. 2)

[T]he university plays an important role in shaping the quality of place and fostering openness and tolerance in the community. (p. 4)

[T]he university acts as a talent magnet by making places attractive to highly-skilled research talent... A critical mass of researchers in a particular place signals some very important qualities and characteristics of the university: a rich portfolio of current and future research and collaboration opportunities; and the opportunity to learn from peers engaged in exciting work at the leading edge of one’s discipline. (p. 4)

[S]trong research-intensive universities with graduate programs also tend to have strong undergraduate teaching programs that attract domestic and foreign students alike. Graduates of these programs are most likely to stay if there is an attractive social environment (e.g. open and tolerant), which – in turn – provides a substantial advantage to the region. (p. 4)

The presence of these deep pools of talent is also attractive to firms who locate to take advantage of being proximate to high quality university facilities and researchers, as well as to a source of newly-minted and well educated talent. (p. 4)

To build excellence and invest in research-intensive universities and their graduate programs is to invest in the communities in which they are located. The university can act as a catalyst for economic development, but – more importantly – the university is also a crucial actor in making places more open and diverse, thereby contributing to wider goals of social inclusion and cohesion within Canadian society. (p. 10)