Selling Out Your Future

There was a story in the Scotland on Sunday yesterday regarding Glasgow University (possibly) selling it’s technology portfolio to a commercialisation company. This doesn’t just cover the current lot, but anything that they generate from within the university for the next 25 years. The price? A measly £5 million (no mention of any royalties).

Given all the talk from the big universities regarding their commercialisation programmes, I’m frankly amazed that this is happening. Not only are they removing any potential economic benefit to Scotland by doing this, but I believe this will put off prospective post-graduate students who were considering going to Glasgow. Why? Simple: if they have entrepreneurial aspirations, they’ll be unable to follow them if they do their work at Glasgow and will be more likely to go to another university.

Tags: business, scotland