Microsoft VP Robert McDowell mingles during a session sponsored by Career Services to help students hone their networking skills.
GREENSBORO – Businesses and universities should regard each other as buyers and manufacturers of educated workers if the United States is to compete in the global economy, according to Robert McDowell, vice president for information worker business value at Microsoft.
“There is a real disconnect between business and higher education about what the real needs are,” he said. “We can’t find enough talent coming out of the U.S. school system.”
McDowell’s comments were delivered today at the first UNCG Corporate Expo, an event designed to promote communication among leaders in business and higher education. About 100 North Carolina leaders attended.
News 14 Carolina aired a report about the expo.
McDowell challenged universities to educate all students to be “technically competent,” to speak more than one language fluently and to have well-honed communication skills in order to compete in the global arena where the United States is facing unprecedented competition for skilled workers. With nearly 70 percent of Microsoft’s revenue presently coming from outside the United States, “we either succeed globally or we die,” he said.
While the U.S. is still the world leader in business and education, the competition from the rest of the world is catching up and leaders aren’t taking aggressive enough measures to prevent the U.S. from losing its advantage, McDowell said.
“One of the risks we face is that our backs aren’t against the wall,” said McDowell. “We’ve been in a pretty good position for a while and it’s now ours to lose if we don’t make these changes that are required.”
With the country currently lagging behind countries such as Japan, Britain, South Korea, France and Sweden in the proportion of students who complete college, and China’s economy expected to overtake that of the U.S. within 20 years, the country faces unprecedented pressure in maintaining its top global status, McDowell said.
He noted that UNCG was one of only a handful of universities in the country taking a proactive role in talking to businesses about how both can form mutually beneficial partnerships. “This is a chance to focus on the UNCG product,” McDowell said.
McDowell underscored the need for higher education to offer a better return on the educational and economic value of tuition.
“What other business in America can raise the price of their product over a five or six-year period by 40 to 50% and not change the quality,?” McDowell said. “Most companies can’t escape a reality check around that. I don’t think higher education should escape that purview as well.”
Leslie Boney, associate vice president for economic development research, policy and planning for the UNC system, said that both students and professors can contribute to the global economy through teaching and practicing entrepreneurship. Boney noted that professors are rarely rewarded for work that doesn’t involve teaching or research. To that extent, he suggested that university faculty take sabbaticals that would return them to the “real world” to familiarize themselves with activities outside of the university.
“We need a constant synergy and exchange between communities and universities,” Boney said. “This must become a demand-driven system to the needs and desires of the people it serves.”
