COMMERCIALIZATION OF SCHOLARSHIP IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

In their search for greater financial independence, Australian universities are encouraging academics to commercialize the application of their knowledge and research skills. While these commercialized scholarship (COS) activities generate significant direct financial returns, they also impact indirectly upon the mainstream activities of university life. There has been little research into these indirect effects on university teaching, research and service. This article reports a survey of academic and administrative staff of two Australian universities which compared direct and indirect costs and benefits of academics’ COS activities. A novel evaluation technique was employed to assess the extent to which interviewed staff believed that the indirect benefits of COS (such as closer relations with external bodies, prestige and spin-off effects on teaching and research) were in aggregate more significant than the direct financial effects. The technique was also used to assess indirect costs of COS, such as time lost to basic research, and the time and other university facilities consumed for which there is incomplete reimbursement. An aggregation of these indirect and direct benefits and costs suggested that COS projects could be more favourable to universities than a narrow financial analysis would suggest.