CSR management, Public Policy

Town and gown

The Lambert Review, an independent report published by the UK Government on December 4, has found that firms with university partnerships are more successful. Such firms are twice as likely to have increased market shares, a broader range of goods and services, and lower labour costs. The report also finds that UK companies have significantly reduced their own in-house research over the last two decades, without a corresponding increase in partnership-based research.

The Lambert Review concludes that increased collaboration between business and university research departments will bring significant economic benefits to the UK. It makes a series of recommendations including:

• the encouragement of new forms of formal and informal networks between business people and academics;
• the establishment of a business-led R&D forum;
• a greater role for business in influencing university courses and curricula.

Contact Billy McKenna, HM Treasury, on 020 7270 5192 (http://www.hm-treasury.gov. uk)

Mutual opportunities

Financial services company, Old Mutual, is sponsoring education links between schools in the London Borough of Southwark and the Western Cape in South Africa. The scheme will link up twelve primary schools (six in each country) with the goal of enriching the learning process and enhancing curriculum activities. The three-year project, which is being facilitated by the British Council, will focus especially on maths and science. Contact Miranda Bellord, Old Mutual, on 020 7002 7133 (http://www.omg.com)

Something special

The Co-operative Group is donating £350,000 to create a network of specialist schools sharing cooperative values. The scheme is being run in association with the Specialist Schools Trust - the lead body behind the government's attempt to create high performing secondary schools in partnership with business and the wider community.

Each participating school will receive assistance from a bid coordinator to help with their application for accredited status as a cooperative school, plus an extra £10,000 each year for two years on top of the initial sponsorship.

Already some 1,500 schools have achieved specialist status, and the government hopes to convert a further 1,000 over the next two years. Each subject school has developed a focused curriculum on a single subject area. Options presently range from technology, sports, arts, languages, engineering, science, maths, computing or business and enterprise. Contact Martin Henderson, Cooperative Group, on 0161 827 5292 (http://www.co-op.co.uk)

Keeping on the straight and narrow

The Coca-Cola Company and its US bottling affiliates have developed model guidelines for school beverage partnerships. The guidelines, published on November 17, will apply to all current and future relationships between Coca-Cola and schools in the USA. Developed in direct consultation with leaders from the education community, the guidelines are designed to help school decision-makers respond to concerns about commercialism and nutrition while maintaining their ability to raise resources for their schools. Contact Sonya Soutus on 00 1 404 676 2121 (http://www.coca-cola.com)

Good business schools

Six North American business schools, including Stanford and Yale, have been singled out as on the cutting edge of practice in preparing MBA students for social and environmental stewardship. The fourth biennial survey by the Aspen Institute and the World Resources Institute, entitled Beyond grey pinstripes, finds that most business schools now cover CSR-related issues in the classroom or in extra curricular activity. With over 950 elective courses shown to provide such content, the total proportion represents a 70% increase since 2001.

The report reveals, however, that the depth of coverage within core MBA courses, such as finance and operations, still remains very limited. Contact Nancy McGaw, Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, on 00 1 212 895-8000 (http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org)

in brief

Blackwell's has chosen the National Literacy Trust as its charity of the year for 2004, pledging to raise £125,000. The partnership aims to raise UK's literacy levels and will involve a number of in-store activities to this end, such as sponsored reads and a Swap-a-book scheme. Contact Claire Anderson, Blackwells, on 020 8439 9000 (http://www.blackwell.co.uk)

Employees from Clifford Chance, Standard Chartered, Pearson, Elsevier, De Beers and the Economist Group took part in a Bring a book to work challenge organised by Book Aid. 11,500 books were donated, the majority of which will be sent to sub-Saharan African countries. Contact Nicola Cadbury, Book Aid International, on 020 7733 3577 (http://www.bookaid.org)

Editorial Comment

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