THE UNIVERSITY of Port Elizabeth is committed to working closer with business as it strives for recognition as the leading “Engaged University” in South Africa. In his inaugural address, vice chancellor and CEO Rolf Stumpf said UPE and its business and government partners aimed to be at the leading edge of a world-wide change in the relationship between town and gown. “Increasingly society wants to know what contribution strong and well-endowed higher education institutions are making to social development and economic growth - both locally and regionally. “This crucial role of the university in the development of the city and of the region is being recognized worldwide. Countries such as Sweden, Spain and Finland are giving birth to a fundamentally new relationship between the university and the city, and between the university and the region - a relationship revolving around the axis of local and regional socio-economic development and the university’s knowledge contributions to such development.” UPE is among the first universities in South Africa to recognise and to embrace this trend, and both academics and staff have taken up the challenge. “It certainly has resulted in UPE, to a very large degree, already having discarded its ‘ivory tower’ existence and beginning to display the characteristics of what is being termed, the engaged university - engaged with a view to playing a major role in local and regional socio-economic development and engaged with a view to establishing a new relationship between the university and society based on the university’s knowledge contributions.” As an engaged university, UPE has committed itself to listening to “what commerce and business have to say about their needs and about our ability to meet their needs with our knowledge expertise. “It means that we will be contacting civil society to talk about a possible match between your requirements and the knowledge outputs that we specialize in. It also means that we will be talking to the provincial and metropolitan governance structures on how we and they can team up to make our province and our Metropole not only the cleanest one in the country, but also the best one!” UPE has also recognised that it is part of the globalisation process. “The engaged institution’s learning and teaching programmes are strongly related to the wider world. This means that our curriculum will become much more organized around the world’s way of doing things. In an engaged institution learning programmes and educational delivery are characterized by case studies, simulations, the frequent use of external lecturers, much student/staff interaction and group work, and structured service learning where students learn to practise what they learn in real life settings. UPE’s approach to research is also being adapted: “An engaged university’s research endeavours are characterized by joint business/academic, joint civil society/academic and joint public governance/academic research partnerships. Such research partnerships do not only bring financial benefits to the institution but also create potential work opportunities for post-graduate students.” UPE is also integrating its teaching and research activities with the needs of the community. “I wish to stress that engagement is not an initiative - absolutely not. It is an institutional orientation. It means that UPE declares itself willing and eager to change with society. It means that we open ourselves up to learn from you - whether ‘you’ represent civil society, business or public governance systems. “As an engaged institution, we will be approaching you to find ways and means in which we can play our part in the socio-economic development of this wonderful Province and Metropole,” concluded Stumpf.