The Marketing and Communication Challenges of Engaging with Business
Over 100 delegates attended a Universities UK conference on 26th March to discuss the challenges of engaging with business in light of the current economic climate.
The view from the Vice Chancellor was presented by Professor Graham Henderson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Teesside who explained that business engagement has been at the heart of the institution’s mission for a long time. He also highlighted some key achievements including leading on a major regeneration initiative, Digital City, the appointment of their Business School Dean from the Business Sector, and investment in the One Door initiative which provides a single access point for business to the University and five local FE colleges.
Andy Russell from the CBI introduced the HE Taskforce and the new CBI Higher Education Microsite. The taskforce has been set up to investigate the challenges of HE engagement with business, including what business values from Higher Education and how university-business relationships can be further developed.
Other key issues discussed included SME engagement and its high opportunity cost, highlighting the benefits of working with intermediaries such as RDAs, Business Links and even banks, accountants etc, who SMEs turn to for guidance. How universities present themselves was also a widely debated topic - many institutions, while having an identifiable link for business on their homepage, do not present their services to businesses clearly and in language which is easily understood by the target audience. The view was that while universities are good at student recruitment, this is because they are clear about their offer, whereas services to business are more difficult to define due to their bespoke nature. The JISC BCE programme will be working with Universities UK who are responding to the issue of institutional web presence for business engagement.
Paul Clark, Director of Policy at Universities UK also presented Standing Together - how universities and colleges are able to help business during an economic downturn including providing education and training, bespoke courses, consultancy services, work placement and help to raise capital. Universities UK will be promoting the work of institutions and lobbying for measures to help universities do more to help business.
Presentations from the day can be accessed here
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