Boundary-crossing as a Higher Education Innovation: World-class Universities, Academic Entrepreneurialism and Intersectoral Collaboration in East Asia

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Global Trends and Perspectives on Stimulating Innovation in Higher Education

Proposal

The contemporary age of higher education has seen institutional transformation and reform at a faster rate than ever. As centers of learning across different disciplines, fields, and subjects, universities are comprehensive by nature and multi-functional in practice. We can therefore consider universities to be “innovative learning organizations” which continuously adapt and evolve. They embody resilience.

Since the worldwide adoption of neoliberalism in the 1990s, higher education policies have reformed and reshaped the life of university in the domains of access, accountability, and finance. Hence, the conceptualization of academic entrepreneurialism (Barnett, 2005; Kwiek, 2012; Tang, 2014) offers explanatory power to make sense of higher education change and reform processes. Academic entrepreneurialism refers to activities that universities undertake to capitalize new opportunities, manage risks, and maximize their revenues, reputation, and/or human capital. These activities transpire in response to demands by policymakers, labor markets, and the knowledge society for education, research, and knowledge solutions. Academic entrepreneurialism encourages higher education institutions and the academic profession to engage with - and contribute to - a system of strategies which establish, empower, and enhance institutional, group, and individual capacities in the context of academic capitalism (Jessop, 2017). Entrepreneurial developments, in turn, shape and reinforce academic capitalism.

Drawing on case studies of three East Asian world-class universities (Seoul National University, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Tokyo), this presentation interrogates the conceptualizations of borders, boundaries, and permeabilities in higher education through an examination of intersectoral communications, collaborations, and partnerships in three domains: 1) university and the “real world,” 2) academic fields and disciplines, and 3) public and private spheres. Empirical findings from qualitative research inform these conceptualizations of boundary-crossing in the three selected domains. First, collaborations between the university and “real world” are investigated through the installation of new offices, leadership and functional roles for knowledge exchange, community engagement, and industry collaborations. Second, innovations in academic fields and disciplines are explored through the creation of professional doctoral degrees, the expansion of taught master’s degree programs, new professional identities (e.g., Professor of Practice); and an emphasis on graduate employability and employability skills across academic fields and disciplines. These fields and disciplines are supporting through strategic research themes and clusters which encourage high-risk, high-impact research; scholarship of “impact” for societal and community engagement, as well as global sustainability; and new interdisciplinary study programs. Third, collaborations between the public and private spheres are promoted through a variety of public-private activities and partnerships; these include the commercialization of research, knowledge and technology transfer, student and graduate entrepreneurship; self-financing study programs, paid consultancy and services, university philanthropy and donations by the private sector, the management of university investments in financial markets, and the hiring of project-based, professorial staff). Based on the empirical analysis, the presentation will conclude with 1) a discussion about the limitations of academic entrepreneurialism in promoting higher education innovation and 2) a proposal that moves beyond the narrow imagination of “the entrepreneurial university” and promotes innovation that can support the future ambitions of higher education institutions.

Author

• Hei-hang Hayes Tang, The Education University of Hong Kong