Economic development becomes a function of universities - UCT academic

The University in Development, launched in November 2011 by HSRC Press, analyses the complex relationship between universities and the rapidly changing world they operate in.

Professor Cooper argues in the book that this third mission should be conceived more broadly as 'socio-economic-cultural development'. Moreover, he says, what academic literature terms the new triple helix of U-I-G (university-industry-government) research networks, needs to be broadened into a quadruple helix of U-I-G-CS (university-industry-government-civil society) research relations.

Challenges for academic research

He observes that a university in this position experiences a major internal revolution or (re)development, due to the effects on its structural organisation. Already prevalent in many institutions internationally, this third academic mission has begun to pose troubling challenges to academic research cultures and systems in South Africa.

The book's central theoretical claim is that a global post-1970s new capitalist industrial revolution is driving this new international transformation within universities, with economies seeking out use-inspired basic research at academic institutions in order to survive and grow within the competitive international market. The analysis thus provides new understandings of current concepts of globalisation, use-oriented research, knowledge society and economy, and national systems of innovation.