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A matter of Principal

June 2011

As an enthusiastic photographer Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, the new Principal and Vice Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, has been casting a critical eye around the city which has become his home and he is surprised. He intends to play a key role in helping the city develop economic security for the days when there is no oil and gas, albeit a long way off, and believes the appearance of the city centre could be a considerable obstacle to that.

“It might sound trivial, but I think it is quite important that Aberdeen as a city is showing some considerable signs of neglect. Aberdeen would not be a poor place but when you walk down Union Street you get the impression of a city which has been neglected.

“That actually matters because if you are attracting industry to invest here the kind of hygiene factors, what it looks like, how good the services are and so on, do make a difference because when you are attracting industry, you are also persuading their senior managers to locate here. These types of things influence their decisions so I think one of the priorities for Aberdeen needs to be look at the neglect of certain parts of the city and to correct that.

“I think universities play a role because they are major employers, major providers of services and I have already spoken on this issue to the city council but I am also proposing to talk to the University of Aberdeen on this. We can‘t solve it on our own but we can help.

“The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture has quite a lot of expertise in relation to urban development and regeneration so it is something we can play a role in.

“Your first impression of Aberdeen is of a city which has seen better days. What I am saying is not unique but I don’t detect anyone doing much about it. While I think it may be recognised as an issue it may not be recognised how important an issue and I think it needs fairly urgent attention.

“Local industry needs to get involved because putting it right requires a bit of pressure and some money. There needs to be a local sense of purpose around this that we are not happy with the state of the city and we do want to do something about it and doing something about it will help in the longer term objective of securing a successful commercial industrial future for Aberdeen.”

Professor von Prondzynski believes the relationship between industry and the universities in Aberdeen is strong but that there is scope for closer interaction to achieve joint goals, whether to promote Aberdeen and the region as a location for investment or pursuing the possibility of joint research programmes.

“Aberdeen needs to spend quite a lot of time looking at what is going to come after oil and gas. I know there is still some time left before the oil and gas reserves are exhausted but that time will come. A lot of the focus has been on renewable energy and new forms of energy and it is right that we should do that but we should not make too many assumptions about what is going to be

located here in Aberdeen .

“Oil and gas is here because there are oil and gas reserves in the sea in this area but renewable energy is everywhere so there is no strong compelling reason why that is going to be based in Aberdeen unless we can make that strong reason.

“We need to look at industry sectors we want to be recruiting to Aberdeen and the region. We need to be selective about that because we can’t imagine Aberdeen is going to be a centre for everything. One type of conversation which ought to be taking place in Aberdeen right now, apart from oil and gas and apart from energy, is what are the small number of industry areas we want to be specifically recruiting to here.”

He suggested this was a dialogue Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen should be having collectively with industry.

He said growth areas of the future would include the IT sector and life sciences and pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals in particular

“Aberdeen is not a bad location for the biopharmaceutical industry because in this area there is availability of land, and plentiful supplies of water which is a key ingredient.

“Whatever those industries are going to be it can’t be everything so we need to focus on quite a narrow sector and then we need to go out and attract them.

“I have had experience of this and the universities need to be key partners in that kind of endeavour. I spent a lot of time in Dublin working with both the industry representative organisations including the Chamber of Commerce and with local and state agencies to attract industry to the area so I am very keen on replicating that kind of activity here.”

He said in Dublin his university was instrumental in working to bring several major high value corporate investments into the city and “once I have found my feet here and have the lie of the land I intend to be active in a similar kind of way.”

The type of industry likely to be attracted here would be knowledge intensive with requirements for a highly skilled workforce and therefore the successful higher education institutions to graduate students with the required skills and to collaborate on research and development.

For that reason it was vital that the universities should be in the room alongside council or agency representatives at the outset of discussions with potential investors to highlight their commitment and capabilities.

“We need to be there making that contribution directly to much greater effect. I am not aware that that is happening in Aberdeen and I am not sure whether it is happening to any degree in Scotland. I am due to talk to the chief executive of Scottish Enterprise soon and that is one of the things on my agenda. The impression I get is that Scottish Enterprise is very keen to develop that agenda and I don’t think there is any resistance. It may be the universities fault rather than the agencies fault but we have to correct it.”