Universities and the Swansea economy
Mike Hedges – MS for Swansea East
Swansea has two Universities, Swansea University and University of Wales Trinity St David (UTSD).
Swansea University was established in 1920, and the title Swansea University was formally adopted on 1 September 2007 when the former members of the University of Wales became universities in their own right.
The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £412.3 million of which £67.1 million was from research grants and contracts. In the 2022/23 academic year Swansea University had approximately 20,000 students and employed over 3800 staff.
UWTSD took over the campuses of Swansea Metropolitan University, formerly West Glamorgan Institute and Swansea Institute, upon the merger of the two institutions. In 2018 the University opened a new £350 million campus at the SA1 Swansea Waterfront which played a major role in the regeneration of the Swansea docks area. In 2022/23 it was reported to have 13417 full time students and 3305 part time students with 1500 staff.
Growing the Universities should increase the local skills base and also produce economic benefits from students and staff as well the benefits of university research and spin off companies.
In Britain we have Cambridge University Science Park formed initially by Trinity College Cambridge following a request that Universities worked closer with Industry, which employs over 6500 people in over one hundred companies.
In Manchester Alderley Park purchased by Manchester Science parks offers exceptional bioscience facilities for research and development in life sciences.
In Sheffield, the transfer of technology from the universities is claimed to be creating cutting edge enterprises across the city. The University of Sheffield supports the growth of technology transfer in the Sheffield City region through an innovation centre and Sheffield bio incubator.
Mannheim, Swansea’s twin city has a centre for entrepreneurship and innovation run by the University which provides a founder and incubation platform for students, young entrepreneurs, and investors.
The largest research park in Denmark is INCUBA science park in Aarhus was created by an amalgamation of “Innovation Network Centre for University and Businesses of Aarhus” and the primary goals of the institution are to strengthen cooperation between research institutions and companies with consultancy; and raising capital for projects focusing on IT and biomedical research.
Swansea has had its successes including CYDEN which designs and manufactures intense pulsed light hair removal products. Veeqo which is a cloud-based app that streamlines order and Inventory management.
CanSense offers an affordable and scalable blood test for early detection of bowel cancer. Power & Water is a water treatment technology company specialising in liquid chemical-free wastewater treatment processes for effluent and wastewater.
London Economics analysed the impact of Welsh universities’ teaching, research, and innovation activities on the UK economy, focusing on the 2021-22 academic year. The figures show that the Welsh higher education sector’s teaching, research, and innovation activities had a net economic impact of £7.25 billion.
When combined with previous London Economics analysis of the direct spending by the sector and the economic benefit of international students, the total impact across Welsh higher education was £10.97 billion.
Students are very important to the Swansea economy; they create employment at the Universities and support the Swansea economy with their spending locally. They are important to the vitality of the city and if they leave Swansea they leave as ambassadors for our city.
Swansea retailers say the city’s students are proving to be a valuable support system for their businesses, and they welcomed the developments in the City Centre to accommodate the influx of young people.
Swansea’s annual Student Shopping Event, organised by Swansea Business Improvement District and the Quadrant Shopping Centre, saw more than 6,000 young people visit the City Centre to take advantage of special deals and discounts laid on by the businesses.
As someone from the generation that had it fees paid and received a means tested grant, it concerns me the low amount students have to live on and I am told by students that whilst most student accommodation is of a high quality, there is unfortunately some poor quality housing.
I put forward the following five point plan.
- Swansea University works with UWTSD, the Welsh Government, Council, and major local companies to develop a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship plus a science park.
- That the development should concentrate on Life sciences, ICT especially artificial intelligence, and green energy.
- That the centre for entrepreneurship and innovation is provided in Felindre on the old tinplate site.
- That the importance of the Universities and students to the Swansea economy is recognised
- That the Universities work to ensure that all student accommodation is of acceptable standard.
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Wales’ universities are in financial
crisis. None of them are in a postion to expand. All are contracting. Judging by this article, Welsh Labour is clearly unaware of what is happening on its watch.
The five point plan is abysmal
Agreed. The first two points are pie in the sky in the current climate, the last two meaningless generalities and the idea of putting anything at Felindre is laughable given nothing significant has happened on the site for 30 years. It’s the classic Welsh Labour fixation with shiny new buildings.
in fairness to him, nobody can has thought of anything better, certainly not in Wales .
Having been in China just before Christmas,
’Life sciences, ICT especially artificial intelligence, and green energy.’ Yep, they won all of these, no chance for UK catching up (or I’m afraid the fringes of the UK).
Why have people voted down this comment? It is factually accurate Welsh universities are in financial crisis.
It would be better to put a “centre for innovation and entrepreneurship plus a science park” in Lampeter as part of a new town expansion that includes reopening the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen line which underpins a massive push to boost the economy of south west Wales.
This fixation with shiny new buildings is a farce. Let’s get down to brass tacks: what’s the patent filing rate at Swansea University? How many Swansea patents filed in the largest IP backed market in the world?? Answer: very few. How many in ICT? Anyone know?
In 1990s the European Union gave guidance on how to grow a transport network and the UK government ignored all the economic advice, still does and no doubt always will ignore economists. Swansea focus should be on growing the area around the train station, as then individuals can travel by train to Swansea train station, go to work / socialize and not use cars – this is basic common sense. Swansea University should have read the guidance https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/eu-guidelines-for-developing-the-trans-european-transport-network.html and when it moved its’ campus has the administrative functions grouped around Swansea train station. Instead there are empty shops. Currently in… Read more »
Bit perturbed by the negativity in some of these comments. Whilst it is true that the majority of Welsh universities are experiencing a financial (and staffing) crisis, Mikes idea could work with public investment. Consider how only 32% of Welsh young people go to uni anywhere in the UK (as compared to 40% in Northern Ireland and over 50% in the Greater London area). Furthermore, it’s worth reviewing the ‘hour glass’ shape of the Welsh economy, with the public sector and a few big players at the top and a lot of very small businesses at the bottom. Growing this… Read more »
Mike’s idea? What is being proposed by Mike has similarities to the Technium project launched 25 years ago. Understandably Mike is thinking about the forthcoming Senedd election.
It isn’t negativity per se, rather a reflection of the old saying that the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. As Brian T S says, it’s all been done before and millions wasted on the Techniums. There are also plenty of existing buildings at the Bay Campus, Baglan energy park and in Llanelli. Scarce public investment must be better targeted than on pre election gimmickry.
One of the key reasons welsh unis are in so much trouble and their R&D is poorer than England/Scotland – is due to funding decisions made by his government over the last 15-20 years. Reduced tuition fees had an impact
Brian & undecided – TBH, I am happy to see that at least one MS is thinking about HE and its role in stimulating tidy jobs ahead of the election. Elsewhere, the silence seems deafening! I get the point about the Technium but think that the problems had far more to do with questionable planning, cronyism and p**s-poor governance. Mike cites a variety of UK and several European comparators. The fact of the matter is that one can find any number of success stories across Northern Europe – the German mittelstand (our elusive missing middle) is fueled by academic, industrial… Read more »
I’m sure you have a point in relation to the failure of the Techniums. However, I would rather see Mike Hedges and other politicians considering what lessons can be learnt from them and more recent developments such as the Science Park on Anglesey before putting up any more buildings. The Swansea Bay City Deal has done plenty of that already. Curious also makes a good point about the questionable record of most UK HE institutions on intellectual property filing (despite the down ticks he got – probably from academics!).