Magnets for talent
AS this latest North East Top 200 businesses list confirms, our region is home to many businesses’ world leaders in their respective fields.
Similarly, Newcastle University Business School aspires to be world class from its regional roots, and I believe that universities and businesses in the region can and should work together to enhance each other’s competitiveness.
I have three main suggestions. Firstly, we want to ensure our students gain practical employability skills during their time with us, as well as benefiting from the robust theoretical education you would expect from a research-intensive university. We recruit from more than 80 countries and we want our students to recognise and participate in the vibrant regional economy in which they are studying.
Live projects and work experience placements with regional businesses enhance our students’ practical skills and confidence and, as recent projects with favourite regional brands, 21 Hospitality Group and have confirmed, provide useful insights for the businesses involved. I believe that together we should enhance students’ experience and showcase regional businesses by developing placements and projects together.
Secondly, both the business school and regional businesses act as magnets for talent – we believe in recruiting and retaining world leading academic talent and have recently made a number of key appointments from as far afield as the USA, Italy and Austria.
Our links to regional businesses strengthen our offering to prospective staff because they open up new possibilities for research and a business relevant curriculum.
We believe we can also help regional businesses nurture, grow and retain their talented individuals through our Executive MBA and tailored executive programmes.
A recent report by the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) estimated that between 10 and 15% of the productivity gap between the US and UK could be accounted for by the much lower percentage of managers in the UK who are university graduates (49% versus 74% in the US).
I believe that together we can continue to attract and develop an increasingly talented workforce for the region.
Thirdly, we can work together to design and produce research to address business challenges and transform business practice. We want our research to have impact and it is widely acknowledged that if the end users of research and leaders and managers, have an input at an early stage then research outcomes are more likely to be adopted.
We have a long track record of conducting research with regional partners and have current projects across the private, public and third sectors, including work with Entrepreneurs’ Forum, Subsea NE, the NHS, and the VSV network.
I believe we can do more to engage regional businesses in research that is useful to them and attract more research funds to the region to address business challenges.
Like the North East Top 200 businesses, our universities need to adapt to ever changing circumstances and are facing challenging times ahead, but at Newcastle University Business School we are constantly striving to be world class by being regionally rooted, nationally influential and globally respected.
We welcome the chance to work with regional businesses to link them with our students, develop an increasingly talented workforce and produce business relevant research because we do passionately believe that we shall be (to echo the title of the CBI’s Higher Education Taskforce Report), stronger together in turbulent times.
:: Dr Fiona Whitehurst is director of engagement, Newcastle University Business School
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