Combining a strong regional focus with the “triple helix effect” can empower young research universities to compete with more-established peers, the Times Higher Education (THE) 2017 Young Universities Summit has heard.
Martin Paul, president at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, delivered a keynote address to a packed room of higher education delegates representing 31 countries at the Summit, hosted at QUT’s Gardens Point campus.
Professor Paul, who has been university president since 2011, said Maastricht’s focus on “knowledge that crosses borders” had made it a standout performer in the country’s competitive university sector.
Maastricht boasts a diverse international university community with more than half its student body from outside the Netherlands and 40 per cent of staff non-Dutch.
More than 100 nationalities study there and semesters abroad to 300 partner universities in 60 countries are mandatory.
“We try to be at the same time regionally very effective but also international,” Professor Paul said.
“We have international classrooms … we think cultural experience is very important in problem-based learning.”
But the university has also looked closer to home to build “strategic alliances”, around its position in the south of the Netherlands.
“If you remove our borders and look at our region, which we call the Euregion including parts of Germany and Belgium and up to Luxembourg, you see if you build around this region, crossing borders, a lot of strategic alliances are possible,” Professor Paul said.
Such collaborations led to Maastricht’s ‘Brightlands’ concept – campus development with private partners in economic hotspots, focused on health, smart services, food and materials.
“The ‘triple helix’ concept is a collaboration of universities, governments and private companies but really it’s a partnership of people,” Professor Paul said.
“We see each other as co-investors in the future of our region.
“These efforts are not only growing research money but also doing something for the region.”
There has been a noticeable return on investment for government partners.
The Maastricht region outperformed the overall Dutch economy in 2015.
“We can show that some of these activities also lead to economic growth,” Professor Paul said.
“After the discussion we had a few years ago in the Netherlands … about whether the Dutch taxpayers should pay for this, we can show it is actually a worthwhile investment and much better than having stocks in Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers.”
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Media contact:
Rob Kidd, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841, rj.kidd@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
