The Expanding Role of Higher Education

“…the bell towers of academia have replaced smokestacks as the drivers of the American urban economy.” -Initiative for a Competitive Inner City & CEOs for Cities

The creation of this alliance is driven by the increased need for making higher education more efficient and affordable. It is also in response to increasing pressures on our national and regional economy to become more entrepreneurial and innovative and the emergence of a regional vision and set of initiatives of the Fund for Our Economic Future for restoring economic prominence of Northeast Ohio.

LCCC and University of Akron, collectively, are the institutions of choice for youth and adults in Lorain and Summit Counties for education and training.

• Both institutions are best positioned to provide accessible and affordable education services to much of Medina County, which is located between the LCCC and UA main campuses, and the location of the University of Akron’s University Center, opening in Medina.
• This corridor of northeast Ohio includes much of the area of the region experiencing the greatest population gain due to residential sprawl and the resulting governance challenges to pubic and private officials. Businesses and jobs also are growing in this corridor.
• Responding to the needs of employers for workers of the future, technology development and business development services to drive new startups and innovation-led business opportunities can be done by aligning and integrating the existing resources of both institutions.

Technology, Globalization and Demand for High Skilled Workers

According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (see box to the right), higher education is critical to the country's economic growth. This places increased pressure on the U.S. to compete with other countries to meet industry demand for high-skilled workforce; and to increase high school completion rates, produce college-ready graduates who embark on a life-long journey of career preparation and skill building.

Transformation of Local Economies

Regional economies like that of Northeast Ohio must adopt “grow your own” business strategies to revitalize growth and competitiveness. Lean, high-value, high-skill (advanced) manufacturing firms can compete quite successfully with large companies in the global marketplace.

“For U.S. to maintain global economic leadership…we need…a continuous supply of highly trained mathematicians, scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff…as well as a population literate in basic science and math.” -The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Richard H. Malloon, “Higher Education and Economic Growth,” January 2006.

We now know, as a result of the work sponsored by the Fund for Our Economic Future that:

• People of Northeast Ohio stay here because of family ties, friends and quality of life they enjoy.
• But people—as consumers, students, business owners, and employees—have expectations that the economy must support if they are to stay here.
• The regional economy needs to perform better. Job growth sufficient to accommodate some population growth is a must.
• Job openings are needed in innovative firms with rising productivity so personal income can rise faster. It is this measure of wealth creation that influences how much we can spend on our homes, our food and our children’s education.
• Without better performance, our future is threatened—and some of us…too many of us…will move somewhere else. Even fewer will move in, and too many of us who lack needed skills will have no real option but to stay, worsening the situation for all.
• The Dashboard Indicators of Education and Skills and Business Dynamics clearly demonstrates the longer-term importance of increasing the percent of adults that have baccalaureate and graduate degrees if we are to increase labor productivity and per-capita income within the region.

Regions that are thriving across the country exhibit some combination of these attributes. These attributes reflect the regional dynamics of an entrepreneurial and innovative economy that is successfully competing in a rapidly changing global environment, and at the heart of the initiatives being tackled by the Alliance.

Founding Alliance Partners

The Innovation Alliance has been launched by The University of Akron and Lorain County Community College, but the desire is to expand this strategic alliance with additional institutions of higher learning. The University of Akron and Lorain County Community College have two decades of innovative collaboration evidenced by LCCC’s University Partnership through which UA delivers baccalaureate degree programs on LCCC’s campus, the Medina County University Center through which LCCC will begin delivering associate degree programs in spring 2008, and through the establishment of the Joint Center for Policy Research which utilized the back office research strengths of UA to fulfill quality and affordable service delivery to not-for-profit and government agencies through LCCC.

The University of Akron and Lorain County Community College invite other institutions of higher learning to join them in this strategic alliance to benefit the people and industry of Northease Ohio.

For more information about the Innovation Alliance, call (888) 570-7147.