There has been a great deal of discussion around the idea of entrepreneurship in higher education. At the University of Texas, we have the usual business school programs, but we also have a unique program in “Intellectual Entrepreneurship”:
The mission of IE is to educate "citizen-scholars" -- individuals who creatively utilize their intellectual capital as a lever for social good. IE is not a program, nor a compartmentalized academic unit or institute; it is an intellectual platform and educational philosophy for instigating learning across disciplinary boundaries and generating collaborations between the academy and society.
Programs like this are designed to help students think outside of the box through interactions with mentors in the university and the community, but the discussions out there around the future of academe aren’t necessarily addressing the role that entrepreneurship can play for professors. For many years faculty members have been told (at least in my discipline of political science) that interdisciplinary programs are the answer. So those of us who were entrepreneurial went out and started new interdisciplinary programs in the area studies (e.g., I helped start a center for European studies), ethnic and racial studies programs, and interdisciplinary majors (like our international relations major); and there has certainly been an increase in programs like nanotech that are clearly interdisciplinary on the science and engineering side.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Career Advice: The Professor as Entrepreneur - Inside Higher Ed
Author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
