Tony Blair visit to Brunel University: walkabout / speech

Tony Blair visit to Brunel University: walkabout / speech; - So, there is no doubt that we are in a fundamentally stronger shape than some years back / We have not abandoned the classic Cardinal Newman account of the university, colleges as sites of disinterested learning, one great parts of us as a civilisation / But we have grafted onto it a very modern phenomenon - that the knowledge that was once the preserve of an elite is now the indispensable requirement for economic advance, to that extent the linkage between a more efficient economy and a more just society where opportunities are being opened up to people, is very clear - We are aware of the fact we are going to face more competition than we've ever had before, already an international university market, but I think if you were to think ten years ahead, I would say that market is going to be even more profoundly global, I think that by the time my youngest is leaving school and trying to get into university, he will face a different range of choices and a different set of pressures than even my eldest boys would have imagined now / If you look at what is happening in China and India, there is no cause for complacency / I was struck when I was in India a short time ago, the way they are investing in their higher education sector / China and India, they have now combined a first-world part of their economy with third world poverty in different parts of their country, poses all sorts of issues and problems / But if you look at the working being done in south of India for example, east coast of China, set to have in region of one hundred new universities over next few years, probably going to be, already are, producing more graduates than the European Union, going to really intense competition, not in mass production of goods and services, but in the high value-added sectors- If we as a country are not able to bring ourselves up to the next level in adding value through application of science and technol...