UK Wants New Breed Of Science And Technology University
The U.K. government announced plans on Wednesday for a new type of privately-funded science and technology university.
Science minister David Willetts said the graduate institution could be set up with international partners and funded by business.
He laid out plans in a speech for an advanced science research center to be created against a background of increasing globalization and international competition in higher education.
“The next round of new institutions may well link existing British universities with international partners,” the minister said in his speech. “The surge in international investment in science and technology would make this a key part of the mission of a new foundation.”
Chi Onwurah, shadow minister for innovation and science, said Britain is “in danger” of losing its world-beating position in science.
“Britain is a leading scientific nation: we have a world-beating position in science but we are in danger of losing it,” she said in a statement.
“In their 20 months in power, ministers have made the wrong decisions for the long term future of science in Britain: they dismantled the RDAs without an effective replacement, scrapped Labour’s long-term research investment framework, cut investment in research and have weakened the Office for Life Sciences.”
Willetts said the plans were inspired by New York’s initiative to build an 11-acre site on the city’s Roosevelt Island.
New York invited universities from around the world to bid in a competition to build a science campus in the city. Cornell University won the bid in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Willetts said he wants a major city in England to offer a site for a technology campus. He set out plans to increase non-government funding for universities by 10 percent and to increase the number of English institutes in the top 100 of university rankings.
Plans were also laid out for another “catapult center” for science research, which will focus on satellite technology.
“This will provide business with access to in-orbit test facilities to develop and demonstrate new satellite technologies,” Willetts said in his speech.