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Unis urged to use research to remain relevant
As universities battle with public buy in, leaders at the recent QS Global Skills Week in Washington has urged the sector to use their research output to demonstrate their value.
By Jamaal Abdul-Alim
“If we do things in the same old way, we are in for a surprise as we try to teach skillsets needed for tomorrow.”
“The need for universities to explore how they can take nascent technologies and “mature them to the point where someone would be interested in investing in it.”
In brief
- Global leaders urge universities to leverage research and innovation to prove their public value and stay relevant amidst rising scepticism and the rapid advent of AI.
- Institutions are reinventing traditional models by commercialising breakthroughs like "Nerve Tape" and launching AI-focused degrees to align academic output with tangible, real-world impact and workforce needs.
- To thrive, universities must prioritise translational research and curate intentional, "real-world" learning experiences that foster entrepreneurial mindsets and directly reflect current market demands and technological shifts.
Amid the unfolding advent of AI in the workplace – coupled with ongoing skepticism about whether a college degree is worthwhile – universities must demonstrate their value through innovations that make a practical difference in the lives of students and everyday people.
That was one of several key takeaways from Global Skills Week – a convening that brought together campus administrators, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and others to discuss the role that higher education will play in creating the workforces and commercial enterprises of the future.
“The universities of today, we need to reinvent ourselves,” said P. Srirama Rao, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
“The old models are failing,” Rao said. “If we do things in the same old way, we are in for a surprise as we try to teach skillsets needed for tomorrow.”
Rao made his remarks during a panel discussion on translational research. As a tangible example of such research, he pointed to Nerve Tape – a tapelike material that Jonathan Isaacs, the Chair of VCU Health’s Division of Hand Surgery, developed to surgically repair severed nerves without the use of sutures.
The product recently received federal clearance, won Congressional recognition and will likely be one of VCU’s largest revenue generators in recent history, Rao said. It’s the sort of story that universities can use to make the case to justify the investment of public dollars.
“I think we have to measure, especially those of us who are public institutions, when we take taxpayers’ money, what is the impact we are having to the stakeholders, our communities and the people we serve?” Rao said.
Asked which skills are most critical for universities to teach, Rao touted entrepreneurial skillsets for students “because they are the people who are going to sell the new next companies and what have you.”
He touted the fact that VCU has doubled its external funding to $568 million since 2018. He spoke of the need for universities to explore how they can take nascent technologies and “mature them to the point where someone would be interested in investing in it.”
Ebrahim Al Hajri, President of Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, spoke of how his university formed the Khalifa University Enterprises Company as a legally separate entity to focus on commercialisation of its research without burdening the institution with that job.
The company evaluates the intellectual property produced at Khalifa University and seeks to convert those properties into commercial opportunities, Al Hajri said.
“Publications are good,” Al Hajri said of his university’s record of publishing 75 percent of its articles in international publications. “But how can we impact society?”
At a separate session, panellists discussed the promise and limitations of AI in health care.
Constance St. Germain, President at Capella University, said research shows that today’s students in health care “know that AI is coming, but they don’t have the time and skill to really understand how it can better serve them”.
Consequently, she said, her university is “building AI into the system”.
Eric Armbrecht, Professor and Senior Advisor to the President at Saint Louis University, shared a similar development at his university, which he says started a new master’s degree in AI medicine.
“We’re trying to intersect our clinical professional education with the technology side at the same time,” Professor Armbrecht said. “I think that’s just the reality of being an educational institution is just doing what’s happening in the market now. If you’re not doing that, you’re doing a disservice to the learners that are coming to you.”
Professor Armbrecht said other disciplines, such as business, could draw inspiration from the clinical learning required of physicians and nurses.
“Unfortunately, many universities leave it up to the student to just go find a random thing,” he said. “It's like, ‘Well, go there, good luck, and write an essay about it.’ It's not curated in the way that the health professions do because they're so intentional about a certain set of experiences so that they can assess the performance of the student in that real world environment.”