The lastest workshop of the U21 RUR network on the topic of Research Universities and their Learning Cities was held at Hong Kong University on 21 November 2013, and hosted by Professor Mark Bray. Delegates attended from the University of Glasgow, Hong Kong University and UBC as well as collaborating universities and cities who are not part of U21. These included the University of Catania, the cities of Cork and Helsinki, Simon Fraser University and the University of Tampere. 

At this point some practical suggestions that emerged from discussion include the following:

• Using Finland as an example ‘platforms for collaboration’ can be established to provide an on-going working relationship between groups of universities and their cities / regions.  Similarly in Shanghai through government funded research and training centres, which have been established to link university expertise to public and business development.
• The potential benefits of university staff being placed within public bodies for specific tasks and projects, was highlighted with Helsinki cited as an example
• From Glasgow, examples of training the drug and alcohol workforce and building leadership in public education, were used to illustrate the need and potential for university expertise being applied for organizational and senior leadership development within the public and business sectors

A full report of the event will be posted soon.