Social mobility

• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230815264596/en/
  In partnership with The Resurrection Project, Dominican University will establish a Chicago campus in the vibrant Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, occupying Resurrection’s La Casa Residence Hall and neighboring Resource Center.
• (Photo: Business Wire)
  In partnership with The Resurrection Project, Dominican will establish a Chicago campus in the vibrant Pilsen neighborhood, occupying Resurrection’s La Casa Residence Hall and neighboring Resource Center.
• “For more than a century, Dominican University has expanded access to education, guiding generations of students to find their true calling,” said Dominican University President, Glena Temple.
• “Our mission at Dominican is to embrace students of all backgrounds and tear down barriers to higher education,” said Barrington Price, Dominican University Vice President of Student Success and Engagement and Chicago Campus Executive Officer.

• The college, based in Ontario, California, is expected to help alleviate Southern California's critical shortage of quality trained and educated health care professionals.
• The investment by AltaMed will help provide a pipeline of qualified graduates to support the Inland Southern California region's growing health care needs.
• "This investment will help train future generations of culturally competent health care leaders who can address the root causes of the negative impacts of the social determinants of health and improve health outcomes," said AltaMed Health Services CEO and President, Cástulo de la Rocha.
• "For more than 50 years, AltaMed Health Services has been dedicated to improving access to care and eliminating health disparities in underserved communities," says de la Rocha.

• Smith – whose tercentenary we celebrate this year – was a pioneer of economics.
• He was one of the greatest thinkers the world has seen and an alumnus of the University of Glasgow.
• Smith’s first great work, the Theory of Modern Sentiments (1759), sets the philosophical foundations for his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations (1776).

Universal education

• And the general consensus among Smith scholars is that Smith was in favour of a public contribution towards education, although in the 18th century this related to the provision of primary school education.
• Smith also argued for universal education.
• He believed that, to offset the harmful effects of the alienation caused by the division of labour, education had to be accessible to all workers.
• During his life, Smith saw reforms to university education in Glasgow: new professorships in law, new medical schools and an expansion into new subjects like chemistry and botany.

Productivity problem

• The recent sluggishness in productivity growth in the UK and some other advanced economies has complex causes.
• Demand for labour is above pre-pandemic levels, according to the Bank of England’s August 2022 Monetary Policy Report , but supply is below pre-pandemic levels.
• Also, the quality of education is quantitatively much more important than the quantity of education for sustained economic growth.

Working with technology

• MIT economists Daron Acemoğlu and Simon Johnson discuss this in their new book Power & Progress: The Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity.
• In essence, this means ensuring that new technologies like AI do not substitute people, but complement labour to boost productivity.
• His fundamental belief in the value of education to society will continue to stand the test of time.

• The end of apartheid in 1994 and advent of constitutional democracy resulted in major societal changes in South Africa.
• The country’s constitution commits the government to take remedial action to address the legacy of past discrimination and injustice.
• It must improve the quality of life of all citizens and promote equality.
• Since then, other macroeconomic policies have included the Growth, Employment and Redistribution and Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa policies.
• Most South Africans continue to face socio-economic exclusion and persistent discrimination on the basis of “race”, gender and disability.

A poor performance

• Extreme inequality has a profound impact on social and personal relationships as well as social cohesion.
• The major gap between rich and poor makes it difficult for people to relate to one another and form strong bonds.
• The quality of basic services in some communities is poor.
• Lastly, the report shows nation-building efforts have been undermined by growing inequalities, decline in good governance and persistent corruption.
• This has been evident in unethical political leadership, state capture, institutional decay and low levels of public trust in government.

Progress undermined

• But these have been undermined by weak governance and poor economic performance since 2006.
• Addressing the socioeconomic and political challenges will be indispensable to the strengthening and consolidation of its democracy.