Increasing Higher Education's Contribution to Economic Development in Urban and Rural Communities : Lessons from Washington State. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper / William Zumeta.

Reasons for increased interest in higher education-economic development relationships are reviewed and the nature of the guidance that policy analysts may be able to provide decisionmakers is outlined. Attention is directed to the merits and drawbacks of six possible approaches to increasing higher education's contributions to economic development without spending large additional sums of state tax dollars. Emphasis is given to two types of approaches used in Washington State: additional investments in technology transfer of university research and development and additional support for campus-based technical and management assistance to firms. Two types of technology transfer investment strategies were studied. The applicability of the approaches to colleges and universities seeking to enhance their contributions to rural economic development are assessed. It is concluded that programs with this objective need to have some special emphases designed for the contemporary rural context, and that expectations for their impact should be modest. It is recommended that attention be directed to objective data-gathering and independent assessment of the impacts of campus-based economic development efforts. (Author/SW)

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.