Higher education and regional development - A case study of south east Ireland

The primary purpose of this study is to lest the hypothesis that a region without a university will be inevitably trapped in a Vicious spiral' of progressive relative decline both in local skills levels and in economic performance, i.e. that the lack of a university is an unsurmountable barrier to regional development. Research in the 1980s observed the connections between urban development and universities. analysed trends in the location of mobile industry, and in particular technology-based industry, and highlighted the apparent advantage to such industry in locating near to universities. Extensive university/industry interactions favourable to the fostering of local industrial clusters were indicated. Enthusiasm in the 1980s for the ' Silicon Valley ' model was superceded by the early 1990s by disenchantment with higher education as 'magic bullet' for all urban economic ills. iwt This thesis critically reviews this literature, and proceeds to examine the case of South East Ireland, a region with no university, against its findings. The presence of a steady supply of highly-skilled graduate employees is identified as the most critical factor which connects universities with industrial and other development. The processes which form the graduate sector of the workforce are therefore investigated both in the South East of Ireland and in a control case which has a university and science park, the Mid Western Region. Migration trends of students and graduates are investigated by means of interview and questionnaire. The results are analysed to determine their implications for the case study region's development potential. The main findings of the study are that, while empirical studies have not confirmed the idealised image of earlier research, the evidence nevertheless supports the view of the university as a pole of development. The most important contribution of the university to the development of its region is found to be in raising the skills level of the workforce The case study area is shown to have a profile of low participation and low graduate employment along with unemployment levels which are amongst the highest in Europe. This profile is correlated with the limited degree-level education provided within the area and is associated with a trend to progressive decline in relation to regions with universities. A programme of measures to enhance conditions for regional development is proposed