Academy industry links and the third mission of the universities Dr. Maria Nedeva MIoIR, MBS. The University of Manchester EULAKS Summer Schools, Mexico City, August 2009

Content Academy – industry links: an overview The third mission of the university The third mission and the reproduction of the university

Academy-industry links: overview Empirical facts Methodological issues Analytical framework Axiological problem(s)

Empirical facts There is a steady increase in the number of immediate links between academic organisations and industry globally There is an increase in the variety and nature of the links between academy and industry There is an increase in the number and variety of policies aiming to encourage academy-industry links Academy-industry links are seen as inherently desirable and unproblematic Academic interest in issues regarding academy-industry links has increased dramatically

Increase in number of links

Methodological issues Conceptual perspectives –Inter-organisational perspective (Bonaccorsi and Picaluga, 1994) –Mode-ist perspective (Gibbons et al., 1994) –Triple Helix model (Leydesdorff and Etzkowitz, 1996, 1998) –Systemic approach (Freeman, 1987, Lundvall, 1992 and Nelson, 1993) From attribute data to relational data Between organisations and structures

Analytical framework The empirical problem The causal problem The axiological problem

The empirical problem How to register and measure academy-industry links? –See these as relationships based on exchange –Identify the types of exchange What is exchanged Is the exchange direct or mediated Is the exchange symmetrical Is the exchange legitimate

The empirical problem Build from the activities (functions) the organisations Example: universities –Exchange in the context of research –Exchange in the context of teaching

Money for servicesDirectResearch related services Money for research specified by industry (consultancy); Money for research already part of university research agenda Exchange of ideas and covering costs of research Direct/mediatedUser oriented research Financial support for future research resultsDirect/ Mediated Basic research Research Course design Covering the costs of short courses DirectContinuous education/ Executive education Content of research training PhD topic definition Sharing the costs of PhD research Sharing supervision (CASE) DirectPostgraduate research Ideas for curriculum development Movement of people Sharing costs of education DirectPostgraduate teaching Funding for specific programmes Industry representatives on programme committees Industry experts teaching on university programmes DirectUndergraduate teaching Funding for curriculum in line with employability agendaMediatedUndergraduate teaching Teaching and training Legitimate/illegi timate ExchangeDirect/mediatedActivity

The causal problem What are the effects (impact) of academy industry relationships on the organisations involved?

The normative problem? Are academy industry links inherently desirable and beneficial?

The university missions Three missions of the contemporary university: –Teaching and training –Research –The third mission The constitutive mission of the universities is teaching. Research is to a large degree optional.

University missions and activities Activities and missions –Missions involve a degree of compulsion –Missions make expectations universal –Missions shift sets of activities from peripheries to the organisational core

What is the third mission: some definitions All encompassing definitions (Jones, 2002; Jacob et al. 2003; etc.) Emphasising commercial aspects; Emphasising wider engagement kind issues; Definitions by example Ideological definitions but all or most of these are functional definitions

What the third mission: is it new? No, it is not new… Yes it is new… No distinction between third stream activities and the re-framing these as one of the missions of contemporary universities.

Is the third mission really new? As a set of activities – no –Universities have always been useful in both teaching and research and scholarship –Universities have for the most part been sensitive to the problems of society and economy –Universities have mostly been directly involved with society and economy

Is the third mission really new? As an organisational mission – yes –Expectations to interact with non-academic domains –Expectations for interaction are universal –Shifts third stream activities from the periphery to the core of the university

The third mission: a relational definition If the third mission is to be understood and its implications usefully discussed it ought to be defined not in functional but in relational terms, hence: …it is the institutional imperative of the university to engage in variety of exchanges with non-academic domains thus establishing different kinds of relationships…

Implication… The third mission is not about the gradual absorption of new functions and activities by the university but about altering the ways in which the university carries out its existing activities.

The transformation of the university Transformations can be situated on a continuum between the University of Infinite Wisdom and the University of Prose and Packaging. UIW – good at selling what they already produce (Private for Profit University) UPP – trying to produce things that the could sell (Service Provider)

Are the links between academy and industry inherently desirable?

Thanks for listening! Any questions?