| His talk considered The Role of A Modern University in a Knowledge Economy and the potential contribution of the BUE to the El Sherouk Community. Professor Kirby argued that in the knowledge economy that characterizes the 21st century, universities will act increasingly as catalysts for economic and social development. As access to raw material was the catalyst in 19th century Europe, so in the 21st century towns and cities will grow up around the creators and disseminators of new knowledge. This has happened especially in Silicon Valley in California and along Route 128 in Boston, where leading world class universities have resulted in a high concentrations of new knowledge (technology)-based businesses. He suggested that in Egypt, there is the SMART village with its links with the embryonic Nile University and it might be expected that modern industry will emerge close to the newly developed educational establishments in the new suburbs of Cairo.In Sherouk, the British University in Egypt is a modern research – led university. It was opened in 2005 and has Loughborough University, one of the UK’s leading technological universities, as one of its main partners. Part of the vision of the BUE is for it to act as a catalyst for social and economic development in Sherouk, transferring knowledge into the local community. As part of this vision, it is proposed to build a business incubator and, eventually, a science park on the campus, whereby Intellectual Property from the University can be “spun out” to the community and the residents from Sherouk can receive help to start new commercial and social enterprises. In this way, the BUE intends to help create a Knowledge Village at El-Sherouk that will help stimulate the economy not just in El-Sherouk city but the whole of the Cairo region. The Science Park, which will be the focus of the Knowledge Village, will provide both quality accommodation for the new knowledge businesses, and close links to academic experts in both science and technology and business/management, as well as access to fresh young minds in the form of students. At the same time, El-Sherouk will become the research and teaching laboratory for the BUE, enabling it to establish partnerships with employers to enrich the learning opportunities of its students, and, importantly, initiate a system of Knowledge Transfer and Commercialisation that is fundamental to the success and future competiveness of Egypt as a modern knowledge economy. |