When UL's dean of the school of business, Professor Noel Whelan, gave a seminar on the role of third-level institutions in economic and social development in South Africa last year, he set off an usual chain of events.

The result is a joint venture between UL and a number of South African institutions. The university has joined forces with South Africa's Foundation for Research Development, Anglo-De Beers Chairman's Fund, the University of Rhodes and Technikon Port Elizabeth (also a third-level college) to establish an international professorship of entrepreneurship. The professorship, which is being advertised internationally, will be shared by UL, Rhodes University in Grahamstown and the Port Elizabeth college. The new professor will be a faculty member of all three institutions and divide his or her time between them. "South Africa has a major problem," Whelan explains. "It has a dual economy: there are many highly successful global conglomerates; however, the vast majority of the population exists in the developing economy, which in reality is often extremely undeveloped. "The big issue we faced was how to inculcate a sense of self-motivation, in order to promote sustainable economic endeavour." The country, he says, "is desperately in need of champions in science, engineering and technology (SET) with leading-edge expertise and an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset". The new professor will be required to establish undergrad and postgrad programmes in SET-based entrepreneurship and business development at the two South African colleges, and to develop a regional centre of expertise in SET-based entrepreneurship in South Africa - along the lines of the National Technology Park, which surrounds UL. Rhodes University and Technikon Port Elizabeth are both located in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. This, Whelan says, is one of the poorest areas in the country. Between them, the two colleges educate nearly half of Eastern Cape's science and technology graduates, while Port Elizabeth registers all but 6 per cent of the province's engineering graduates. Both colleges, which lie 30 miles apart, are keen to introduce courses and modules in entrepreneurship and small-business management which will equip graduates to create their own employment and to develop an entrepreneurial culture in the colleges and the wider community. UL, Whelan argues, will gain a lot from the venture. "This chair is designed to spawn a lot of research in relation to entrepreneurship and its survival, impact and contribution at different levels of economic development," he says. "South Africa provides a good experimental area and the potential for research is huge. A part of UL's mission is to contribute to economic and social development. Involvement in this venture will enhance our capacity to do that."