scholarly journals Academic engagement with industry: the role of research quality and experience

Author(s):  
Alessandra Scandura ◽  
Simona Iammarino

AbstractThis work explores the role of university department characteristics in academic engagement with industry. In particular, we investigate the role played by research quality and previous experience in academic engagement across different scientific disciplines. We test our hypotheses on a dataset of public sponsored university-industry partnerships in the United Kingdom, combined with data from the UK Research Assessment Exercises 2001 and 2008. Our analysis reveals a negative link between academic quality and the level of engagement with industry for departments in the basic sciences and a positive relationship for departments in the applied sciences. Our results further show that the role of research quality for academic engagement strictly depends on the level of the department’s previous experience in university-industry partnerships, notably in the basic sciences, where experience acts as a moderating factor. The findings of this work are highly relevant for policy makers and university managers and contribute to the innovation literature focused on the investigation of the determinants of valuable knowledge transfer practices in academia.

Author(s):  
Chris Farrell

This chapter focuses on the role of the mentor the context of a modern language institution. It looks at two strands of mentorship: within the organization and while interacting with the wider ELT world. In the first context the authors look at the various functions a mentor is expected to perform with a particular focus on the scheme as it exists in Centre of English Studies in the UK and Ireland. Here we have a comprehensive mentor program in operation for the summer quarter of the year with weekly sessions and comprehensive support provided. For the other three quarters of the year, the mentor role is more ad-hoc, with a flexible program and timetable dictated by the teachers' needs. In both of these situations, the mentor has to play a number of key roles and be relatively proficient in these. In terms of the role of the mentor in an external context, this chapter looks at the role of mentor in the Irish Research Scheme for Teaching, a national research scheme aimed at promoting academic quality through research in Ireland.


Humanomics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Mashitoh Mahamood ◽  
Asmak Ab Rahman

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of waqf in financing higher education. Nowadays, higher education is costly and this has prevented students, especially those who are self-financed, from accessing such learning environments. This paper offer an alternative solution to relieve such a situation, namely, through the application of an endowment-based or waqf educational institution. The study suggests a way to establish an endowment university by concentrating the discussion on the concept and principles of its establishment, as well as sharing the experiences of the Malaysian waqf universities and the Turkish Foundation Universities/Vakif Üniversitesi in financing their universities using waqf, i.e. a pious endowment instrument. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data were mainly collected using in-depth interviews with the universities’ higher management authorities and some of the members of the board of trustees. Findings – The findings show that the role of waqf or pious endowment is significant in providing financial assistance to their communities as well as strengthening their academic quality. In addition, tawhidic epistemology together with morality and ethics have influenced waqf donors or founders to donate their wealth and property to enrich and sustain universities and higher education. Originality/value – This article provides the experiences of the Malaysian Waqf Universities and the Turkish Foundation Universities/Vakif Üniversitesi in financing their universities using waqf. It also contains some good examples from the experience of several earlier Islamic civilizations, in particular those of the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. In addition, examples of the implementation of waqf and endowment-based universities in the UK and USA as well as the Al-Azhar University of Egypt is also included.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Robinson ◽  
George Lewith

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is widely available in the UK and used frequently by the public, but there is little high quality research to sustain its continued use and potential integration into the NHS. There is, therefore, a need to develop rigorous research in this area. One essential way forward is to train and develop more CAM researchers so that we can enhance academic capacity and provide the evidence upon which to base strategic healthcare decisions. This UK survey identified 80 research active postgraduates registered for MPhils/PhDs in 21 universities and were either current students or had completed their postgraduate degree during the recent UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2001–2008. The single largest postgraduate degree funder was the university where the students registered (26/80). Thirty-two projects involved randomized controlled trials and 33 used qualitative research methods. The UK RAE also indicates a significant growth of postdoctoral and tenured research activity over this period (in 2001 there were three full time equivalents; in 2008 there were 15.5) with a considerable improvement in research quality. This mapping exercise suggests that considerable effort is currently being invested in developing UK CAM research capacity and thus inform decision making in this area. However, in comparative international terms UK funding is very limited. As in the USA and Australia, a centralized and strategic approach by the National Institute of Health Research to this currently uncoordinated and underfunded activity may benefit CAM research in the UK.


Author(s):  
Andrea Bonaccorsi ◽  
Brigida Blasi ◽  
Carmela Anna Nappi ◽  
Sandra Romagnosi

AbstractIn recent years, the growing interest of universities in valorization of research activities (tipically through technology transfer—patenting and licensing—and academic entrepreneurship) has generated a debate on its impact on scientific knowledge production. There have been controversies on the potentially negative effect of university research valorization on public research, in terms of quality, long term vs short term orientation, and accessibility. The debate has been traditionally framed in terms of substitution vs complementarity between public research and valorization. In this paper we argue that the key to understand the relation between public research and valorization lies in the role of research funding, particularly: (a) competitive public research funding; (b) third party commercial funding. If the funding system (both public and private) takes the value of academic research as signal of quality, then high quality researchers are able to attract extra-funds beyond ordinary endowment. In turn, these additional funds can be used as a source to organize an effective and long-term division of labor in laboratories in order to support inventions and licensing (patents) and entrepreneurial activities (spin-off companies). In this case academic quality and commercialization are strong complement and positive feedback loops are generated. This interpretation on the role of funding is strongly supported by original data from the Italian Evaluation of Research Quality VQR 2011–2014 dataset. The paper is based on a unique and novel dataset, that integrates data on valorization of research activities at individual and institutional level on all the Italian universities and microdata on research quality on 32,616 researchers in STEM disciplines.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Coyle

Using a case study, the process by which a university in the UK sought to implement its strategic objective to become an entrepreneurial university, by defining a set of desirable entrepreneurial attributes for all staff, is examined. It is concluded that the role of leaders, in connecting the desirable entrepreneurial attributes to the day-to-day-work of staff, is vital if an entrepreneurial culture is to be established throughout a university. Key aspects of entrepreneurial leadership that can support university–industry interaction are recommended.


Author(s):  
Greg Tower ◽  
Brenda Ridgewell

The study examines the impact of national research assessment exercises for the accounting and visual arts disciplines. Analysis is also made of the impact of a national research quality assessment exercise of New Zealand and UK initiatives (Tertiary Education Commission. 2004; RAE, 2001) and well as the proposed Australian RQF (2005). We find that whilst the definition of research is broad enough to include most of the activities of accounting and finance, and visual arts academia the actual measures of research performance may be problematic. The need to clearly demonstrate quality peer review is the largest hurdle especially for visual arts academics with their individualist and independent mindset. Whilst visual arts and, accounting and finance academia research performance activity was ranked low in both the UK and NZ, we conclude that that the focus on output quality and peer assessment offers a potentially broader and more accurate depiction of activity. Obtaining a balanced broader assessment of both traditional performance measures such as research publications of accounting and finance along with the more creative elements of visual arts such as exhibitions is paramount. We also make a call for more research training for both disciplines to assist them in the recognition of quality research productivity.


2017 ◽  
pp. 98-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tirole

In the fourth chapter of the book “The economy of the common good”, the nature of economics as a science and research practices in their theoretical and empirical aspects are discussed. The author considers the processes of modeling, empirical verification of models and evaluation of research quality. In addition, the features of economic cognition and the role of mathematics in economic research are analyzed, including the example of relevant research in game theory and information theory.


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