Steve Smith, vice-chancellor and chief executive of the University of Exeter, talks about the positive contribution being made by students from South Asia, in particular from China THE Times recently described Exeter as "a university city, with a good hospital, pretty parks, close to beaches, and right on the M5."
pandora style beadsFor those of us who live in the city it is always interesting to read how we are perceived by people looking in.
I might have added a wonderful cathedral to their description, but what struck me, of course, was the description of Exeter as a "university city" and what that means for our present and future.
The residents of Oxford and Cambridge have had hundreds of years to get used to being described thus, but it is a comparatively recent phenomenon for Exeter.
In places like Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei people certainly see Exeter as a university city.
If you have walked down the high street recently you may have been struck by the change in the city's ethnic mix.
The university's increasing links with South Asia have led to a large increase in the number of students from this part of the world choosing to study in Exeter.
They are making a very positive contribution to the life of the city, including an invitation to local people to celebrate the Chinese New Year with them tomorrow.
In 10 or 20 years time these students will be running what by then will doubtless be the largest economy in the world.
What value will this association with China and South Asia bring to Exeter and its ambitions to develop a knowledge economy around its university and science park? The increase in international students is one of the reasons why the university has become a major engine of economic growth.
The university now generates about Pounds 340m a year for the economy and that is set to grow to Pounds 400m by 2012.
Turnover has trebled since I joined the university in 2002 but, because we are very research led, we don't have to grow student numbers to unmanageable levels to improve our turnover.
Expansion of universities has been a central plank of the Government's education policy for the last 10 years. During that time universities have risen to become drivers of their local economies; an industrial revolution that has largely gone unnoticed.
A short trip to the Streatham Campus will quickly reveal the benefits of that policy. Despite the world's economic problems, the university catalog printing is investing Pounds 275m in new facilities. We expect to recruit 100 new academic staff this year and student applications are continuing to rise. This is of huge benefit to the city during difficult times because it supports many jobs outside the university as well as our 3,000 staff.
The fortunes of 'town and gown' are inextricably linked these days -- perhaps that is what is meant by the term 'university city'? At the same time as receiving more public money, universities have diversified their sources of income from areas such as catering and accommodation, recruiting international students, research and working with business.
Exeter receives government funding of about Pounds 73m a year for teaching and research on a turnover of Pounds 240m. In other words, we get under a third of our income from the state.
This national policy h
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