Campus Review Vol 31. Issue 11 - November 2021 | Page 17

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policy & reform
The report ’ s author , Catherine Friday , EY global head of education , said the pandemic has exposed the searching our universities must do “ when it comes to finding their place in the future of education ”.
“ Our universities cannot rely on everincreasing inflows of domestic and international students to pay the bills , with student levels unlikely to return to 2019 levels as the sector continues to reel from the pandemic ,” she said .
Must all academics commercialise research to survive ? As the pressure to commercialise research has never been so important , Campus Review asked Waring whether some academics will be reluctant to treat their intellectual property as a business venture .
“ From the academics I know and worked with , the two things they care about most is , one , social impact – that their research has a big benefit to society – and two , about their status among their peers in the field ,” he said .
“ Now , I think that ’ s compatible with getting more commercial funding because , if you look at what they have to do now for government grants , they keep having to do these short-term grant applications where they ’ ll get a grant which will last them for a year or two .
“ And as long as they reach their goals , they ’ ll need to apply for another grant , and that grant-writing process is very uncertain and time-consuming .”
As Waring argues , some academics would prefer to get their grant money from venture capitalists or industry partners , allowing them to get off the “ grant application treadmill ”.
Other promising commercialisation opportunities While health services , agritech and renewable energies are common research commercialisation opportunities in Australia
Our universities cannot rely on ever-increasing inflows of domestic and international students to pay the bills .
at the moment , Waring told Campus Review that design – of all types – is another field in which opportunities abound for venture capitalists and industry partners .
“ If you look at Apple , the most valuable company in the world , that was built on having good design ,” he said .
“ Those products that are co-developed and are very useful for individuals and businesses have a high-potential return , I think .”
And while in the past product design hasn ’ t been a huge priority for universities , Waring says that you need only look at what Apple has achieved to think of the possibilities . ■

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