Should Universities Earn Money?

Improving knowledge transfer from the public to the private sector has been an important goal in higher education policy for many years now. This knowledge transfer is also known as valorisation. Part of valorisation is gaining economic profits from research: research that is funded by public money. In this lecture, we discuss how universities earn money in this way, and we question whether it is compatible with the primary objectives of providing education and conducting research. Nordine Es-Sadki, researcher of economics of knowledge and innovation