Universities as catalysts of change in locked-in and vulnerable resource-based regions of the Global South

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Peru and the regions of Arequipa and Cajamarca.

Map showing the regions of Peru, surrounded by the neighbouring countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia, with the regions of Arequipa and Cajamarca highlighted.

Table 1. Key characteristics of Cajamarca and Arequipa.

	Perú	Cajamarca	Arequipa
Population, 2021 (million)	33.03	1.45	1.52
Rural population, 2021 (%)	17.6	64.6	8.2
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, 2021 (USD)	6724	3465	7960
Average annual GDP growth, 2007–21 (%)	7.4	6.5	7.6
Share of mining sector in GDP, 2015–21 (%)	9.8	22.6	24.1
Illiteracy rate, 2021 (%)	5.2	10.4	3.0
Poverty rate, 2021 (%)	25.9	40.9	13.9

Source: Own elaboration based on the Regional Information System 2022 of the National Institute of Statistics and Information of Peru (INEI).

Table 2. Research capacity of UNC (Cajamarca) and UNSA (Arequipa).

Region	UNC	UNSA
Total number of publications in Scopus journals (2015-21)	102	1141
Total number of patent applications (2015-21)	0	43
Total number of research projects implemented (2015-20)	18	65
Accredited researchers per 10,000 students (2021)	16	34
Lecturers with doctoral degree per 10,000 students (2021)	98	149

Source: Own elaboration based on RED IDI (2019) and official reports from CONCYTEC, UNSA, UNC and Publisher Elsevier (2022).

Table 3. Universities as agents of change in Arequipa and Cajamarca.

	Arequipa	Cajamarca
Regional preconditions
Social structure	Poverty, inequality, social conflict	Poverty, inequality, social conflict
Poverty	Medium	High
Main industry specialisation	Copper mining	Gold mining
Higher education	Scarcity of specialised skills	Scarcity of specialised skills
Research activities	Increasing scientific publications and patents	Low scientific publications and no patents
Science industry links	Ill-developed	Ill-developed
Institutions	Political instability, corruption, lock-in, lack of trust	Political instability, corruption, lock-in, lack of trust
Universities as change agents
Internal leadership	Strong vision and strategic planning	Continuity of status quo
Gender equality and diversity	Promoted	Absent
Research and framework conditions	Improvement of operational processes and internal technical capacities. Increased internationalisation.	Lack of technical capacities for knowledge exchange. Insufficient collaborative culture, both internally and internationally.
Innovation	Establishment of science and technology park, and dedicated entrepreneurship support.	Insufficient efforts to improve conditions and incentives for innovation for non-incumbent firms.
Institutional linkages	Emerging efforts to integrate strategy into a broader regional innovation policy.	Lack of coherent regional innovation policies.
Local engagement	Increasingly impactful and strategic engagement with regional actors.	Lack of strategic regional engagement. Distrust from regional actors.
Summary of change agency	Innovative entrepreneurship efforts to establish international links and support for entrepreneurship. Institutional entrepreneurship efforts to legitimise activities beyond resource-based industries and change culture. Place-based leadership efforts to engage locally with institutions and the industry base.	Role closer to reproductive agency, with insufficient efforts to change internal processes (including incentives and regulations), engage with the regional ecosystem, and shift industry structures. Recent favourable developments including administrative changes favouring collaborative research, and new leadership team with stronger vision and skills.

RED IDI. (2019). UNAS y UNSAAC reciben Premio a la Excelencia otorgado por la editorial científica Elsevier y el CONCYTEC. Red Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación. Recuperado de https://www.redidi.org.pe.

 Google Scholar