The Higher Education Minister, Sam Gyimah, recently reiterated the point that, “going to university was worth it.”
Why he felt the need to say this is surely a sad indictment of the current level of debate in the UK, and follows comments by the likes of fellow Cabinet Minister, Michael Grove, that Britain has heard enough from experts.
According to Gyimah at a time when the UK is seeking to “unstitch a 40-year relationship with the EU, we need experts more than ever. This is not the time for our universities to shrink back and sulk.”
He continued, ““I want the UK to be where current and future generations come to see their ground-breaking ideas come to life and truly make a difference to the world.”
And, as if to prove that point, in this issue of New Electronics we celebrate the 10 years ARM and the University of Southampton have been collaborating and developing solutions for mobile and embedded systems.
The ARM-ECS Research Centre has focused on advanced design methods, architectures and the validation of single and multi-core processor systems, and has succeeded in grounding academic research, by using the experience and requirements of an industrial partner to guide and focus research projects.
In fact, it’s ongoing success should be seen as a benchmark by which other collaborations could be organised and the collaboration has not only benefited ARM, but made it easier to attract students to the university.
“It’s been a relationship built on delivery and trust and is a strikingly professional working relationship that is helping us to attract the brightest students from around the world,” says Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, who is Co-Director of the Centre.
But not only that, the university’s relationship with ARM means that for students, with the prospect of an internship, they are able to add to their research and to their long-term employability – a win/win for both parties and also for the UK going forward.
As Gyimah said in his speech, “We need to think seriously about international students and researchers. Out there, somewhere in the world, there are people, young and not so young, with the ideas and the potential to send shockwaves through the status quo.”
Collaborations such as that between ARM and the University of Southampton provide a platform to do just that.
