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Uni collaboration "would benefit businesses"

Calls for universities and businesses to work more closely together have been welcomed by the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC).

The business membership organisation backed the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, in his efforts to get academia and commerce working in tandem.

Lord Mandelson called for a change in the culture and attitude of Higher Education and said that students and businesses alike needed to be more demanding of the system.

NECC highlighted the importance of closer links with the five North East universities in its Innovation Report published earlier this year.

Ross Smith, NECC head of policy, said: “Lord Mandelson has hit at the very core of the issue – we need to unlock the potential of our universities to help businesses to innovate and compete on the global stage. We are seeing this happening in a number of ways in the North East but there is much more that can be done to link the two sides more closely.

“Universities are huge assets that we are not making maximum use of either to deliver graduates ready for the key industries of the North East or to work with businesses to share knowledge.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .