Knowledge Exchange in the English Higher Education Sector

Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Role of HEFCE/OSI Third Stream Funding

The UK Government, through HEFCE/DIUS, has invested approximately £700 million (constant 2003 prices) over the period 2000/01 - 2007/08 into building the capacity and capability of Higher Education Institutions in England to engage with external organisations. Through its Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) programme round 4, it continues to provide such funding with a further £340 million (constant 2003 prices) being released over the period 2008/09-2010/11.

In April 2009, PACEC and the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge published the first major evaluation of the effectiveness and role of the HEFCE/DIUS knowledge exchange funding programmes (dominated by HEIF and the Higher Education Reach Out to Business and the Community Fund). This research was commissioned by HEFCE in late 2007 and was undertaken in 2008, involving case studies of thirty Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in England of different types, a survey of academics across these HEIs and a survey of external organisations that engaged with them. The report presents evidence on the extent to which this funding has helped secure direct and indirect economic benefits through changing attitudes and culture within HEIs and helping them develop the necessary capacity and capability to engage with external organisations.

Key findings include:

• A very high proportion of academics engage in knowledge exchange activities with external organisations through a great diversity of mechanisms, well beyond technology transfer and well beyond science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines;
• Government policy, a dedicated funding stream through HEFCE, leadership and financial pressures have all served to increase the importance of knowledge exchange within the overall HE mission;
• Initial concerns about whether the emphasis on knowledge exchange would impact the traditional teaching and research roles have proven to be unfounded.
• Indeed, many synergies between knowledge exchange, teaching and research are thought to exist. Many academics are motivated not by the personal income they can secure through knowledge exchange, but by the benefits they can realise for their research and teaching activities;
• There appears to be a growing culture within HEIs that embraces knowledge exchange as a legitimate activity for academics alongside research and teaching, although it is still not fully embedded across the HE sector;
• Significant investments have been made into the capacity and infrastructure within HEIs to facilitate the knowledge exchange process;
• Knowledge exchange outputs have increased rapidly over the period 2001-2007, with total income from such activities reaching almost £2 billion in 2007;
• Between £2.9 billion and £4.2 billion out of the total £10.3 billion generated through knowledge exchange engagements between 2001-2007 can be grossly attributed to HEFCE knowledge exchange funding, either directly or indirectly. However, this almost certainly underestimates the true impact as many of the outputs cannot be easily monetised.

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Project Series on the State of Knowledge Exchange in the Higher Education Sector

Following the publication of the Evaluation of HEFCE Third Stream Funding, the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge has been given a grant to work with PACEC to undertake a series of research studies on the state of knowledge exchange in the HE sector. These studies will build on the evidence base assembled for the Evaluation. The research falls into five distinct areas focusing on key issues emerging from the earlier work, including:

1. 1. The Evolution of the Infrastructure of the Knowledge Exchange System (Download summary; download full report)
   2. Efficiency and effectiveness of the the Infrastructure of the Knowledge Exchange System (forthcoming)
2. Intellectual Property regimes and their implications for knowledge exchange (Download summary; download full report)
3. Synergies and trade-offs between Research, Teaching and Knowledge Exchange Engagement (Download summary; download full report)
4. The Higher Education Knowledge Exchange System in the United States (Download summary; download full report)
5. The role of Knowledge Exchange in generating civic and community impacts (Download full report)