University of West Indies

In this SciDev.Net opinion article on higher education in developing countries, Dr. Arnoldo Ventura analyses the under-performance of these institutions, suggests changes, and comments on the role of development funders in making those changes. He states that "more innovative approaches are required to tackle social conundrums and to clear paths for progress", which can flow from the developing countries themselves if the ingredients of information, experiences, and skills are provided to people by their universities.

Dr. Ventura cites the figure of 700 researchers and engineers per million people in Latin America and the Caribbean; but he states that their contributions to innovation and development remain low and that "universities have not adequately boosted socioeconomic development or safeguarded natural environments". He sees key problems as: a lack of collaboration between academics and industry - "People's skills, knowledge, outlooks and energies are developed for and directed to isolated projects designed by specialist agencies for unconnected missions"; a misguided focus for higher education - for example, "misreading market demands has led to too much management, business and accounting training, which fosters wealth circulation rather than creation"; and higher education routines in separate faculties geared to honing specialised skill, not "harmonised to confront multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral development problems in, for example, agriculture and agro-industrial production, storage and marketing" and not geared to deployment of needed skills.

The changes named in the article focus on attitude changes - "fully appreciating the process of innovation, which in turn hinges on interlocking visions, collaboration, exchange, reciprocity, and cooperation"; "a greater willingness to assess and take risks"; and more tolerance of failure. Dr. Ventura suggests "centering teaching not just on building capability but also on how that capability can be used to generate new ideas, forms, processes and products." He notes that firms must learn to use new science and technology (S&T) capabilities more assertively, as in emerging Asian economies; governments must design and implement effective and efficient incentive and funding policies; the S&T community will need to shed "individualism and empire building" to work collectively; and societies must be willing to "shoulder the costs of installing innovation systems."

For the role of funders, Ventura recommends the provision of funding to back attempts to commercialise research results through "technological incubators, design centers, entrepreneurship clusters, science parks, pilot plants, and transfer and foresight offices in higher education establishments" and linking them with education and training and local socio-economic, democratic, and environmental needs. He cites as an example "developing countries, such as Brazil and Singapore, [which] are assembling networked teams that build innovation systems by encouraging unconventional thinking and confident sharing." He concludes: "It is the quality and longevity of relationships - between suppliers and customers; domestic and foreign sources of technology; funders, suppliers and users of S&T; and between universities and other training institutions and firms - that really deserve thoughtful support."

SciDev.Net on March 12 2009. Photo Credit: Flickr/UTPL VIA Comunicaciones