QM News 74 (pdf 1.58 MB) - Queen Margaret University

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What are universities for?
Professor Wend presents her professorial lecture at the Royal College of Physicians
In October, Professor Petra Wend,
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of QMU,
presented a very timely professorial
lecture on the role of universities.
The audience, which filled the large
lecture theatre in the Royal College of
Physicians, included a range of senior
figures from the education, health,
cultural and business sectors.
After taking the audience on a journey
through the history of universities
throughout the world, Professor Wend’s
lecture tackled one of the biggest
questions – what are universities for?
Within that context, she discussed the
modern role of universities in Britain and
the way in which they are managed and
financed.
In recent months and years, there
has been much public debate about
the funding and role of universities in
Scotland and the rest of the UK. On the
one hand we hear about knowledge
exchange, skills development and the
closer alignment of these to the needs
of industry, while on the other, we hear
about further concentration of research
funding in centres of excellence.
Equally, there are strong signals about
the differences between regional and
national or international universities and
a perceived duplication of provision in
‘regional’ universities.
In balancing these competing pressures,
Professor Wend warned that we need to
proceed with care. While it is absolutely
right for society to seek the best value
from its investment in universities, she
argued that we need to ensure that
we build on the diverse ways in which
every university contributes to Scotland’s
success.
She sees five roles for universities:
• education;
• research and innovation;
• public engagement;
• economic development and
• social inclusion and mobility.
In order to fulfil all of these functions, she
believes that an additional important role
of a university is to maintain and/or rebalance
the diversity of functions within
its institution to define its unique mission
and vision.
Professor Wend argued that to be
successful and useful, every university
needs to fulfil each of these roles. This
means, for example, that research
should not be restricted to a limited
number of universities.
She said: “Universities can and should
have multiple functions providing
research, education, public engagement,
economic development and social
mobility.”
Professor Wend argued that a university
that is forced to fulfil only one role at
the expense of the other ceases being
a university and fails in its potential
for contributing to the economic and
social welfare of society. She strongly
believes that it is the current potent mix
of universities’ multifaceted functions and
the way these are inseparable from each
other that make them leaders for a better
society.
The text, PowerPoint presentation
and film of Professor Wend’s
professorial lecture can be downloaded
at: www.qmu.ac.uk/community/
QMPublicLecturesarchive.htm