Beware of the Red Queen

The current constraints on the university sector brought about by competing pressures being placed respectively by governments, through financial restrictions and reductions or flat-lining of support funding, by the belief that the sector may act as a vehicle for economic growth, the expectation from industry to deliver relevant research with limited investment in the sector; and the demand from students to attend universities in increasing numbers with a related reluctance to necessarily pay for increasing tuition fees. To address these tensions, university mangers are looking for innovative solutions to ameliorate these pressures. This paper provides observations on the way higher education institutions are facing up to these challenges, and illustrates the role that the Triple Helix concept can play in the success of associate ventures.