The Role of Higher Educational Institution in Promoting Regional Development of Peripheral Regions. The Usti Region Case, Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the regional role of the university by analysing the needs of the peripheral region and the possibility for the regional university to fulfil the regional role in promoting innovation and cooperation with business in old industrial region on the example of Usti region in the Czech Republic. We show, that Usti region, locked in the position of old industrial region with low educated workforce and low VAT industry needs the local university to concentrate of teaching role and on cooperation with existing businesses in order to promote and further develop existing technologies. On the other hand, the regulatory environment in the Czech Republic pushes the University to produce internationally competitive research and gives little motivation to engage with the region. We employ analysis of primary and secondary documents, comparative analysis, expert opinions, qualitative field research in the regions and higher education institutions. We conducted 10 interviews with stakeholders in the region. For the historical development of the Usti region we employ the method of historical institutionalism.