Higher education's contribution to economic growth and society

30 April 2012

Commenting on today’s report on the Higher Education Innovation Fund Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group, said:
 
“New ideas and inventions are the lifeblood of our society and are vital for economic growth.  As this report shows academics at our research-intensive universities play a key role in generating truly innovative ideas and working alongside business and industry to make sure those ideas are exploited to their full potential. Crucially the report shows that Government investment - through the Higher Education Innovation Fund - results in a six-fold return on investment and the return is greater where research intensity is greater.
 
“This shows why it is essential to target the investment through HEIF on research-intensive universities, who are best able to translate world-class research and knowledge into economic benefit to the UK.  Academics at Russell Group universities are more likely to have taken out a patent, licensed research to a company or formed a spin-out than academics at other institutions. We welcome and share the Government’s ambition to increase income from business partners but it’s vital everyone understands this will only ever be a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, Government support.”

Note to editors

1. The report is published on the Public and Corporate Economic Consultants (PACEC) web-site http://www.pacec.co.uk/

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