United Nations report on Asian higher education has questioned the widely held belief among policymakers that investment in university research leads to economic growth.
The study, which examined Malaysia and Thailand in particular, found that in these countries “very little” varsity research is commercialised, and even when it is, it “does not yield large financial payoffs”. The report also suggests that the two nations may be spending on research largely to push themselves up in world university rankings, which would mean that research has only “symbolic” value.
These findings, from Higher Education in Asia: Expanding Out, Expanding Up, published in April by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), suggest that the huge sums some Asian nations are investing in research through universities might produce more growth if spent elsewhere.
China is known for spending significant sums on research. A report last year from the UK innovation charity Nesta, China’s Absorptive State: Research, Innovation and the Prospects for UK-China Collaboration, put the nation’s total R&D spend across universities and business at 1 trillion RMB (Rs.960,473 crore) in 2012. Separately, Unesco says that in 2011, 7.9 percent of China’s R&D spending was channelled through universities.
But beyond China, other countries in the region funnel a greater share of their total R&D spending through universities, rather than businesses, government or non-profit organisations (see box). “Many governments see universities as centres of research that will yield positive economic returns to the country,” Unesco says.
In 2011, South Korea spent more than 4 percent of its gross domestic product on R&D, whereas India, which is much poorer, invested only 0.81 percent, statistics in the report show. China invested 1.84 percent, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2001.
But such differences do “not tell us if research leads to higher income levels, or if higher income levels allow for more research to be carried out”, Unesco says. Poorer countries tend to catch up with richer ones by imitating technologies discovered elsewhere rather than engaging in “independent R&D and innovation”, it adds.
The report also distinguishes between R&D spending by businesses “which will have a clear positive impact on productivity and hence economic growth in a country” and research carried out at universities, about which it is much more lukewarm.
Universities are often subject to “unfavourable tax laws” and have “limited access to capital”, which reduces the economic return on research, it says. “It is not clear, then, that university-based research necessarily leads to the economic payoffs that governments expect,” concludes the report.
(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)