Discussion Session with Professor Sarfraz Miaz on “Developing An Entrepreneurial University”

Invited guest

 Prof Sarfraz A. Mian,

Professor In Entrepreneurship and Strategy,

Chair of The Marketing and Management Department,

School of Business,

State University of New York

Date

18^th January 2013 (Friday)

Venue

Conference Room, School of Management

Agenda

 8.30am – Arrival of the guests

9.00am – Welcoming remarks

9.15am – 10.30am – Discussion

10.30am- 11.00am – Refreshment and adjournment of meeting

Attendees

 Prof Sarfraz A. Mian, Prof Fauziah Md Taib, Prof Wan Rosli, Datin Dr Joriah Muhammad, Dr Hasliza Abdul Halim, AP Dr Noor Hazlina Ahmad, Dr Marini Nurbanum Mohamad, Dr Noorliza Karia, Dr Siti Hasnah Hassan, Dr Siti Rohaida Mohamed Zainal, Dr Amirul Shah Shahbudin, Dr Shankar Chelliah, Dr Mohd Anuar Arshad, Mr Lok Char Lee

Objectives

 In an increasingly complex, dynamic and heterogeneous world, higher education is facing dramatic changes that have somehow disrupted the traditional identities of place, of time and of the scholarly and student communities. It is reckoned that in this new global economy, innovation and entrepreneurship are engines of economic growth. The role of universities has changed tremendously and become the main drivers for economic development. Therefore it is vital to understand on how universities need to move forward of becoming an entrepreneurial university.

Highlights

Issues Highlighted

1. Role of universities have shifted in the economic development in which university should become the enabler and driver for economic growth.
2. Growing prominence of entrepreneurial and small technology oriented business in economy due to a global competition and US is losing competition.
3. Many universities try to emulate the MIT model as entrepreneurial university. Harvard University is known as the ivory tower – the elite model whereas MIT is known as practising the egalitarian model.
4. Emergence of global competition has dramatically changed the educational landscape and increase the role science and technology, resulting in driven economy.

5. University must be able to create, manage and utilize knowledge in a robust way and knowledge economy entrepreneurship and innovation is the key to success.
6. University needs to become the transferor of knowledge beyond a mere indirect economy and social role.
7. Another important issue in order to move towards the entrepreneurial university is to have a systemic view of the ‘the entrepreneurial university model” and different universities have to understand their own context in developing their own model of entrepreneurial university.

 Challenges

1. To get the full support from industry to trust the research and development/products produced by the universities. Typically industries tend to rely on technology transfer from multinational companies and it is very difficult to get collaboration from the industry. Therefore, the concept of partnership should be introduced to get the support and win-win situation.
2. To harness and instil the spirit of entrepreneurial knowledge among the staff of the universities. Staff are reluctant to participate in this new concept. The incentive mechanism and the role model should be injected in order to encourage them to be involved in entrepreneurship in education.
3. The matching process between university and industries is very complicated and to look into this matter, perhaps university should start its own start-up and incubators. The concept of partnership should be tighten so that the link between the university and industry in terms of producing and commercialising the technology could be enhanced.
4. It is complicated to get the buy-in from the academe to embrace on entrepreneurial university since it is perceived that entrepreneurship is all about income generation and venture creation whereas the core duties of the academician among others are knowledge creation and knowledge transfer.
5. Universities should become the reservoir of knowledge where this knowledge could be transferred to the external parties.
6. Developing entrepreneurial university from the developing countries produces many challenges in terms of funding, incentives, culture and the environment. Universities in developing countries specifically face many obstacles in commercialising their R&D/product innovations (e.g. not accepted by the market) and to come up with their own start-up is not easy to put into practice due to money constraint.