Open to change: knowledge transfer policy reception in a new university in Scotland

Abstract

In the past 10 years, higher education (HE) systems in many parts of the world have experienced the emergence and development of policies for knowledge transfer (KT). These policies have established KT as the ‘third stream’ of the university's activities after teaching and research and reflect attempts to make universities more responsive to the needs of the new knowledge economy (KE). These developments may be seen as a global policy trend towards extracting a greater contribution from universities to the economy and society as a whole. At the same time, contextual factors that reflect local histories and meanings have an impact on how such policy is taken up. This article examines the reception of KT policy discourse in a new university in Scotland in order to illustrate the power of discursive shifts to effect the re-definition of the university in an environment with strong civic traditions, and where there is considerable synergy between policy directions and institutional management aims.