The University, Knowledge Creation, and Economic Development

guest commentary by Dr. Paul Beran, chancellor, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

Universities are often seen by those outside the institution as somewhat one dimensional. It is a place where parents send their children after high school to prepare them for the “real world,” i.e., a particular career or field of study that will form the basis for their future employment, or where adults go to get a degree to change or further their respective careers.

The common perspective about the higher education process is that people walk into classrooms, are informed and tested by educational professionals, and then those same professionals declare at the end of a prescribed period of time called a semester at what level the course material has been mastered. The person then exits the class with some level of knowledge that is supposed to correspond to the exit evaluation performed by the educational professional, e.g. the professor. When people exit enough classes successfully then they are awarded a degree. To use a term recently connected to philanthropy, knowledge is seen to be “paid forward” by professors to create good and positive future outcomes in the people they teach.

The reality of knowledge creation, however, is much more complicated than it appears on the surface. While it is true that some classes do descend to rote memorization and mindless feedback so that a professor can quantitatively construct a grade, that is merely the surface element of higher education. The depth of higher education comes when the person in the class actually becomes a student. According to The American Heritage College Dictionary, a student is someone who becomes “an attentive observer” and actually is in the “pursuit of knowledge.” Once the pursuit of knowledge begins, student becomes learner and knowledge creation is triggered.

As I alluded to earlier, observers outside the university see taking classes, collecting the requisite completed classes, and then graduating as the kind of one dimensional activity that happens at a university. But behind that seemingly mundane process lies the multi-dimensional excitement of knowledge creation. 

So what does all this have to do with economic development?

The answer is simple:  economic development is driven by knowledge creation.  It is the core of all new ideas, products, possibilities, and opportunities. It is the basis for scientific advancement, social improvements, educational breakthroughs, and technological development.  
A fleeting look at a university campus might instill an image of animated students going to class or playing Frisbee on the grass or reading in a student union lounge chair. But those kinds of activities are masquerading as the real essence of the university — the real essence of the university is what is going on in the heads of all those students as they think, and rethink, and question, and debate with themselves and others about the ideas and concepts they are discovering in class. What is going on in their heads is knowledge creation, and it happens no place on earth as readily and as freely and as naturally as it does on a university campus.

By now I am sure you can see the causal chain: structured educational experiences spawn creative and critical thinking, which includes experimentation to validate ideas and hypotheses. Critical and creative thinking along with experimentation then lead to knowledge creation, ultimately stimulating economic development through capitalistic and social harnessing of ideas and inventions for market purposes.  

The core magic of a university is the knowledge creation that happens. Universities are now creating internal entities like centers for entrepreneurial and business development, training centers to directly assist business and industry, and think tank environments that encourage and focus knowledge creation.

Even without these 21st century trappings of university based economic development, however, a university will always be a hotbed of knowledge creation. And that will always be the basis for economic development.