School of Education

Extended summary

The Strengthening Urban Engagement of Universities in Asia and Africa (SUEUAA) project was funded by the British Academy under the Cities and Infrastructure programme of its Global Challenges Research Fund

The overall aim of the SUEUAA project which ran from 2017-2019 was to strengthen the contribution of Higher Education Institutions in six cities in global south countries, (Iran, Iraq, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe) to the development of urban infrastructure across a range of inter-linked domains. We were concerned with how universities could through better engagement with city stakeholders contribute to improving physical, economic, social, health, environmental and cultural infrastructures that make cities resilient to natural and human-made disasters.

Our intention was that there should be three main forms of outcome.

• The first of these was concerned with the lessons learnt from the current ways in which HEIs engage with their city stakeholders in order to contribute to sustainable development and how this compares with needs and demands of communities. This would serve as the basis for recommendations to universities, cities and education policymakers for new forms of provision and training. A better understanding by HEIs of needs would allow the exploration of new structures to deliver services to cities, based not on supply, but demand.
• Secondly, universities within each of the cities were provided with the opportunity to re-assess the roles of academics and to create new forms of reward linked to the capacity of staff to make contributions to city development.
• Thirdly, we sought to ensure that individual academics engaged within the project, both from the north and south would benefit from an increased understanding of the various forms of challenge that exist in DAC countries and would form part of a development cadre of experts in the field.

In each of the cities where we worked (Duhok, Sandanaj, Manila, Johannesburg, Dar es Saleem and Harare), we systematically mapped how universities currently engage with their cities using suitable adapted benchmarking tools that allow complete coverage of the potential contributions that these institutions could make to development. We mapped perspectives from the supply side (the universities) with those from the demand side (regional stakeholders who are potential beneficiaries). In this respect we have in most cities discovered a lack of adequate levels of engagement between HEIs and their urban partners, and a lack of structures and platforms to facilitate these links, despite the willingness to collaborate, and awareness of the mutual benefit in doing so. By offering HEIs and their urban partners tools to assess the relationship between supply and demand for the services that universities possess, we clearly established a lack of communication between the two sides, and have identified both where gaps exist and how these might be bridged through creating new mechanisms and structures for communication.

A common response has been to recognise the benefits of benchmarking engagement, and having access to tools that have been suitably customised to do so, and the need to formalise such structures for interchange between universities and cities. For example, in Dar-es-Saleem, recommendations have been by the city made to invite universities to City Council meetings and strategic planning sessions. In Harare, the exchanges facilitated, have led to a re-engagement between university and city, earlier historic close ties having lapsed, and renewed Memoranda of Agreement.  In Duhok, Iraq, as a result of our work we have seen the  establishment of a research collaboration on the environmental impact of conflict and landmine clearance with Duhok City Landmine department. It is not only with formal city government that universities work. Beyond city authorities and agencies, we have also seen impact in relation to the NGO and IGO sectors through increased collaboration. For example, in Sandanaj, Iran, there has been an increasing awareness of the humanitarian responsibility of the Universities of Kurdistan as a result of  SUEUAA insights, bringing these universities closer to relief and rescue organizations such as Iranian Red Crescent. In another case, we have seen the development of Memoranda of Agreement that involve both administrative/political units and the NGOs. This was in the Philippines where Philippine Normal University brought together within selected communities of Manila and Marikina City (a nearby city) both non-governmental organisations and the Barangays (the smallest political unit in the Philippines).

Overall our findings suggest that the engagement activities of universities respond to a variety of different SDGs, for example, in relation to gender equality, environmental sustainability and addressing unemployment. However, many of these activities have historically undertaken in isolation, that is, without the collaboration of industry, local government or NGO partners. Many of our case studies highlight that universities are reacting to issues of the city, without a network of other influential actors. This suggests that currently, the 'quadruple helix' (which refers to link between universities, government, industry and civil society that promotes innovation) is underdeveloped in these cities, and suggests for future 'Third Mission' (i.e. the mission beyond teaching and research) engagement activities, more work should be done in creating closer links between universities, the city, business and NGO stakeholders in order to create sustainable solutions to issues at the city level.

The major contributions of our work has been to create increased awareness of the importance of such collaboration through highlighting concrete cases of specific cities, and proposals for the development of practical means to enhance that collaboration to effect.

In relation to the development of staff, we have facilitated training sessions during our events in both Manila and Harare, which have focused on technical and ethical matters in conducting result. We have also offered online training through a webinar. Furthermore, we have sought to sustain this important component of our work of capacity strengthening, by during the project seeking avenues for its continuation. This has been achieved in part through successful applications to the European Commission’s, Erasmus+ Higher Education Student and Staff Mobility Programme. This has allowed exchanges for both the University of Zimbabwe and the University of Duhok of staff and students to the University of Glasgow during the 2018/19 to 2019/20 academic years and vice-versa. This work will be now be extended for two further years to 2022 following another successful bid to the EC.  We have also encouraged south-south exchanges of experiences and practices, including for example through visiting professorships such as that of Dr Marius Venter from the University of Johannesburg to Philippines Normal University.

These quotes illustrate some of our concrete impacts that have fomented closely working between universities and their cities.

A particular outcome has been the establishment of a research collaboration on the environmental impact of conflict and landmine clearance with Duhok City's Landmine department. As a result, the University of Duhok is now thinking to plan to establish in the future a Landmine Department within college of education in order to provide trained expertise to the city and other parts of Iraq in order to facilitate clearance of mines, which are a scourge for the country. We would not have moved to this position without the processes of benchmarking in SUEUAA. (Professor Mosley Duhoky, President of University of Duhok)

The relationships created through the SUEUAA project, between the University of Zimbabwe and City of Harare, have potential for closer collaborative work. Plans are already underway to pursue the renewal of a Memorandum of Agreement that embraces all faculties at the UZ and all departments at the City of Harare. (Professor Charles Nherera, University of Zimbabwe)

The Community and Partnership Office… (of Philippines Normal University)… was about to pull out its engagement in Manila. However, we managed to retain and strengthen our community engagement in Manila as a result of our involvement in SUEUAA. … Seven barangays (smallest political unit in the Philippines) chairpersons with some other officials of Manila and three non-government organisations signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on August 30, 2018. The MOA strengthens our community partnership with Barangays in Manila. (Professor Zenaida Reyes, Vice-President, Philippines Normal University)