CSR management, Public Policy

The big educational issue of the moment focuses on students - should they pay more for fees? With America spending 2.7% of GDP on tertiary education and the UK just 1.0%, everyone agrees we must invest more. Perhaps surprisingly, the cry has not (yet) gone up for companies to foot the bill. Yet two thirds of the 300,000 people who left UK universities with qualifications in 2001 went straight into work. It's not just students who prosper from their education. Their employers gain too.

One area that has recently received more attention is collaboration between higher education and business on research. The Lambert Review makes a convincing case about the benefits to both sides of partnerships. Universities are getting much less precious about having their research agendas sullied by commercial exploitation and in some high profile cases are getting in on the act themselves. Lambert also says universities need to work more with business through regional development agencies, recognising their role as knowledge powerhouses for their region's economic development - as they are in the US.

Another current difference with America is alumni contributions. Nearly half the former students at Yale, Harvard and MIT make donations to their alma maters, rising to nearly two thirds at Princeton. The comparable rate in Cambridge, one of the UK leaders, is just 5%. But much of the money actually comes from companies through employee fundraising. To cite just one not untypical case, the ExxonMobil Foundation matches 63 for every 61 donated by its employees and retirees. Since its matching gift programme began in 1962, the foundation has donated approaching 6300 million to higher education in the United States, with 622 million in 2002 alone (more than half its total worldwide education contribution).

Whatever happens with the student fee debate, we think companies need to put higher education more firmly on their community outreach agendas, alongside the continuing good work in schools. Whether it's research, regional development, employee contributions or even scholarships and bursaries, more involvement seems both right and inevitable.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 73 - January, 2004