Live Report: PolyU – THE Innovation & Impact Summit - Conference Day 2

[Sponsored article] Welcome to the morning session of the second day of the two-day inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) Innovation & Impact Summit, at Hotel ICON, co-hosted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and THE. Featuring keynote speeches and a series of thought-provoking panel discussions under the theme of "Powering Universities' Economic and Social Impact through Innovative Research and Teaching, the summit is a key celebratory event of PolyU's 80th anniversary.

World-class speakers include high-profile innovators, entrepreneurs and policy-makers including Charles Chen, Founder of the Yidan Prize and Core Founder of Tencent Holdings Limited; Hermann Hauser, Co-Founder of Amadeus Capital Partners; Candace Johnson, Founder/Co-Founder SES, Loral-Teleport Europe, Europe Online, VATM, GTWN, OWNSAT, Success Europe; Greg Simon, Former Executive Director, White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force and Nicholas Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology, HKSAR government. Other influential higher education figures to address the Summit include leaders of renowned institutions from Australia, England, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Spain, the United States.

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16:24

Reflecting on the two days of absorbing and informative keynote presentations and panel discussions, Timothy W. Tong, President, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University says the areas highlighted and discussed over the two days were wide and varied and highlighted the increasingly important role universities play in the wider community. "The hard work organising the event was worthwhile," says Tong. And on that highpoint, this concludes the two-day inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) Innovation & Impact Summit, at Hotel ICON, co-hosted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and THE.

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16:14

Continuing the focus on measuring the impact of universities, Billy Wong, Senior Data Scientist, Times Higher Education asks should measurement be based on single data or a raft of measurements. "If a university is involved in research that has a global impact it will obviously be a different type of measurement than a university producing research with a local impact," says Wong. Audience members are now asked to take 15 minutes to talk to each other as an interactive workshop about the various ways they think the impact that universities make should be measured.   

As the votes are gathered, Phil Baty moves around the room with a microphone asking audience members about their thoughts and suggestions. Suggestions range from teacher rankings, how quickly students pay off their debits once they graduate, student employability, how many students register massive open online courses, the number of students that moves into entrepreneurship (which also tends to attract fellow students from the same programme or university), and impact on society by students that graduate as engineers. An audience member raises the issue of confidentiality when applied research is licensed to a commercial organisation that benefits society, but the university receives no recognition. Another audience member asks how the impact on safety and the value to human life can be measured when a university research is applied for public well-being or public policy. Alison Lloyd from the PolyU suggests measuring the value to students engaged in social impact activities and how they feel about contributing to social impact.  

After adding up the votes, the number one area the audience decided the best method of performance indicator measuring the impact of universities is teaching.

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15:37

Continuing the focus on measuring the impact of universities, Billy Wong, Senior Data Scientist, Times Higher Education asks should measurement be based on single data or a raft of measurements. "If a university is involved in research that has a global impact it will obviously be a different type of measurement than a university producing research with a local impact," says Wong. Audience members are now asked to take 10 minutes to talk to each other about the various ways they think the impact that universities make should be measured.