Our highest seats of learning are no longer seen as ivory towers. John Hill reports on a new study which investigates how universities work with the wider community.

UNIVERSITIES are hard to miss. Aside from the fact they’re often large, sprawling campuses bustling with life, their mere presence in a town or area is enough to noticeably affect the type of people you’re likely to see wandering through the streets come September.

But how does the work they do within those walls change the way society develops? And how, in turn, are they being altered by the changing world outside?

“Once upon a time, universities were looked on as up on the hill and kept themselves to themselves”, says Professor Rick Rylance, the chair elect of Research Councils UK. “The trend now is to see them interacting with business, and with the local and global populations. If you’re moving to a knowledge economy, you realise knowledge is not just the domain of the universities.”

Research Councils UK and Universities UK marked Universities Week last week by launching the Big Ideas for the Future report, a document which outlines the research currently being developed at universities which will have an impact on society in future.

The document features work from a range of disciplines such as engineering, medicine, humanities and social science, and in some cases sees them pool their knowledge in search of a wider goal.

There is also a trend toward working in tandem with businesses, offering assistance with everything from research to product development advice.

Rylance says: “I’m not sure how well it’s understood, but Great Britain is at around the top of the Premier League in terms of research. It’s something that’s crept up on us but we’re second to the USA, and if you take the amount of bang you get for your buck, we’re well ahead of that.”

“If you look at the great universities in Britain, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Newcastle, they’re full-service universities that offer everything, but they’ll also be interacting with their local area. There are also universities like Coventry which reflect their area by having specialist courses in fields such as car design. What we’ve got is an evolution in British universities that’s been going on for donkey’s years, but has accelerated since the 1980s.

“We’re seeing a willingness to work with other bodies such as local businesses and public sector bodies. That’s not a radical change, except when judged in the long run.”

The report is designed to highlight the benefits in public investment in public education. As part of its drive to cut costs across the nation, the Government has cut funding to universities, and the increased fees awaiting undergraduates in 2012 will see seats of learning like Newcastle and Durham charge £9,000, while Teesside, Sunderland and Northumbria charge £8,500.

The quality of university research is also being assessed by the four UK higher education funding bodies using the Research Excellence Framework. The assessment, which will be completed in 2014, is designed to “provide accountability for public investment in research and demonstrate its benefits”.

Durham University research appears several times in the report. The prestigious university is highlighted for its work in a number of fields, including research which could use gels and microemulsions to grow organic crystals of active pharmaceutical ingredients. This work could lead to a new system for quick and effective drug manufacture and delivery.

Durham is also looking at home- based computerised technology to improve the quality of life of patients with visual field defects, as well as a replacement for dental X-rays which uses a lower-power laser to pass light through a tooth and provide an image that can be seen with a miniature camera.

In addition, teams are investigating the best method of treating heart failure, potential interventions to wean hardened smokers off cigarettes, the benefits of reclaiming low-value brownfield sites for regeneration use, the thinking behind modern-day attitudes to burial, and the social development of babies.

Durham’s pro-vice chancellor Professor Tom McLeish says: “I think it’s right that people should expect universities to be more actively engaged with society than they have been. It’s always been part of our core vision here, but I’d say the successful universities are the ones that form deep and creative partnerships with local communities.”

Durham is working on around 40 projects with consumer products giant Procter and Gamble at present, and McLeish is keen to stress a university’s work is not merely a choice between pursuing “acclaimed” academic research and doing “slightly less interesting research” for society’s benefit.

He says: “It’s a false option. In most areas, the best and most ground- breaking research is done in partnership with people outside academia, and if you do that you can make a difference together.”

Research currently taking place at Newcastle University is investigating the most effective policy for criminal justice, looking at a “unified” theory of punishment that accounts for any future threat, methods of deterrence and rehabilitation.

However, the same university is also researching the case for “minimal moral veganism” as part of a study on the ethics of farmed animal products consumption. Professor Paul Watson is also leading the Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy project, which is investigating how advanced digital technology can help improve social inclusion.

The Medical Research Council is also assisting Northumbria University researchers in analysing the consequences of chronic pain. The university has developed a “life-shirt” which gathers readings such as blood pressure, as well as a “sense-cam” which hangs around the viewer’s neck and chronicles their daily route as a visual diary of how they function with chronic pain. A trio of Teesside University projects also made the list.

Professor Tracy Shildrick is leading a team challenging the view the “cultures of worklessness” have been fostered in parts of UK society.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation- funded work aims to develop a better understanding of the social forces at work and influence future welfare policy.

Dr Iain Spears is also in charge of a team which hopes to make middle-aged men healthier by challenging them to exercise while drinking at a local working men’s club.

The project uses a virtual fitness game called the “exergaming” system, which provides a more fun approach to promoting health. The university is also creating a portable device which is used to diagnose deep vein thrombosis more effectively.

Teesside’s dean of the graduate research school Zulfiqur Ali says: “We’re a business-facing university, so it’s natural we should be contributing to the regional economy.

“It’s not to say all academics will be doing applied work. But more of them will be, and we’ll be encouraging them to do that.”