Higher Education as a Driver of Regional Development – Applied Sciences & Research within Diversified Higher Education Systems and Their Role in Knowledge Exchange and Regional Development

Background

The tasks and roles of higher education within the modern society have enhanced substantially and got stratified resulting into a diversified landscape of higher education programmes and institutions. Besides the traditional universities with a strong focus on knowledge creation and research a growing number of higher education institutions focus on other agendas – teaching and learning role, internationalisation, providing expert capacity for public discussion, transfer of existing knowledge to society and the world of work, promotion and development of the region and community in which they operate. On the contrary to the traditional academic activities and values the latter tasks are quite often confronted with misperceptions and misinterpretation of necessary support and challenges.

The regional dimension of higher education, community and enterprise development, mutual communication between higher education institutions, region and the world of work including small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) is strongly embedded within the mission of the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), their values and characteristics and contribute to strengthening their links to regional community and labour market.

Diversification of universities’ mission and roles has been an issue for the Slovak government for the last decade, with numerous attempts and systemic arrangements to strengthen links of Slovak universities to labour market, in order to release a part of their capacity for contribution to the regional development. However, these issues represent a challenge for a number of other countries, as well, and are also at the centre of attention of EURASHE. The seminar will provide a suitable opportunity to set a platform for exchange of views, experience and lessons learnt and for discussing various solutions from the international perspective, yet paying a reasonable attention to the Slovak agenda, as well.

Objectives

The aim of the event is to:

• Generate discussion and ideas on how to further develop the knowledge exchange including applied research and learning needs reflection in cooperation between European higher education institutions and various regional actors
• Showcase good practices from different European countries regarding regional cooperation including students’ engagement
• Share and discuss experiences and expectations from different sides; higher education, businesses and students. Exchange ideas on priorities for regional-focused activities between the European and Slovak actors in order to promote a networking platform and further cooperation of the seminar participants
• Based on the workshop discussions, draft conclusions regarding challenges and possible approaches to addressing regional knowledge exchange and a role of higher education at European, as well as Slovak level

The event presents the key topics of regional cooperation from the European perspective, but simultaneously also presenting the specific Slovak aspects within the regional development.