PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

So what is the economic impact of universities?  That was the question posed by London School of Economics policy fellow Anna Valero and her colleague John van Reenen of MIT in a recent academic paper. In reviewing previous evidence, Dr Valero suggest that there are various ways in through which universities can affect economic growth. The most obvious is that higher education produces the skilled workers required by businesses and that this can have a boost to local economies given that students who graduate are more likely to seek work in the area where the university is located. Another important role is that of developing and diffusing innovation with universities being crucibles for research and development (R&D) and there is increasing evidence of this being commercialised either through links with local firms or via academics spinning out to create their own businesses.  This role is particularly important in Wales where universities are responsible for 40% of the t...

As we emerge out of the pandemic, it is clear that the use of digital has become even more important in the home and the workplace.  During the last eighteen months and as the country went into lockdown time and time again, the use of digital tools became critical in being able to work away from the office, to maintain relationship with friends and family and in containing and managing the pandemic itself through track and trace. Yet despite this, not everyone has the digital skills to operate in this environment. As the latest Essential Digital Skills report from Lloyds Bank shows, whilst 42 million adults are able to communicate, transact, problem solve, stay safe online and handle information, 21% of the UK population (roughly 11 million people) lack the essential digital skills for everyday life.  In other words, 10 million people are not able to access the Internet themselves and lack the most basic digital tasks, 6.5 million cannot connect to Wi-Fi by themselves and 4.9 ...