Universities are more entrepreneurial

Dr. Allan Gibb, University of Durham, in “Towards the Entrepreneurial University?” offers some observations on the emergence of the entrepreneurial university, one which has taken on a third mission, that of contributing its knowledge generated to society more directly.

Gibbs claims that entrepreneurial universities have a culture that is open to change and to the search for, and exploitation of, opportunities for innovation. They are managed by a strong steering core that helps them respond flexibly, strategically and coherently to opportunities. Across academic departments there are entrepreneurial champions. Key aspects of entrepreneurship education are embedded across the curriculum.

A great example is the University of Rochester. According to “Building a Better Entrepreneurial Education,” it is aggressively fostering entrepreneurial skills in fields like education, engineering, nursing, and music—and in the business department, too. Courses in entrepreneurship are found in six schools on campus. The goal is to foster leadership, management, and team-building qualities. Rochester’s brand of entrepreneurship is the “transformation of an idea into an enterprise that creates value—economic, social, cultural, or intellectual.”

At entrepreneurial universities, engagement with the stakeholder community is actively pursued. Funding is obtained not by pursuing philanthropy but by building credibility with key stakeholders. By such engagement the university becomes more of a learning organization.

Knowledge transfer programs are a feature at entrepreneurial universities. Interdisciplinary research and partnerships with external stakeholders are more important in terms of their contribution to innovation than patents, licensing and spin-off activity.

The latest evolutionary stage of the university as an institution is generating debate and tension in academia, similar to what took place a hundred years ago concerning the emergence of the research university. At that time, many argued that the demands of research would compromise the university's teaching mission.

Today, who would argue that knowledge generated by research doesn’t infuse teaching with relevance and vitality? Similarly, the ambivalence to universities' added entrepreneurial role is likely to change.

Gibb thinks the new dimension to its mission is rather Victorian, revisiting the 19th-century view that higher education is for imaginatively using knowledge.