Government and universities must cooperate

Stressing: Professor John Goddard makes a speech at a workshop at UWC.

UK academic, Professor John Goddard, has stressed that Western Cape universities and the government need to cooperate and understand one another to build the economy.

Speaking at a special workshop at the University of the Western Cape on 20 March, Goddard said that government was developing new services to grow the economy, but for those innovations to succeed, skilled people - who can be produced by universities '“ were essential. He added that universities and governments all over the world are busy discovering each other, and evaluating how they can work together.

'The bottom line is that both share an economic interest in building strong regional economies."

Goddard, described as 'an economic geographer', delivered his talk in a workshop on building capacity at Western Cape universities.

Deputy vice-chancellor and professor of regional development studies at Newcastle University, he was in South Africa as a guest of the UCT Institutional Planning Unit and also made a presentation UCT's Annual Environmental Scan workshop.