Universities face a financial crisis. The key to survival is the scholar-entrepreneur |
A Stanford University student walks in front of Hoover Tower in Palo Alto, Calif., in February, 2012.Paul Sakuma/The Associated Press
Peter Zhang is a doctoral candidate at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto.
In Canada and the United States, restrictions on the entry of international students have put further pressure on higher-education funding. Most institutions rely on a mix of government support, tuition fees and philanthropy, all of which are being squeezed.
To get by, universities should invest more in the development of scholar-entrepreneurs – students or faculty who offer additional sources of funding by commercializing their work.
For example, Stanford University generated more than $1.3-billion in cumulative gross royalties between 1970 and 2010 from licensing its research and technology.
What if institutions provided active support for startups founded........