In a recent article for the Globe and Mail, University of Toronto doctoral candidate Peter Zhang argues that universities should take steps to cultivate “scholar-entrepreneurs” on campus. Zhang defines scholar-entrepreneurs as “students or faculty who offer additional sources of funding by commercializing their work.” While commercialization and entrepreneurship are more common in areas like business and management studies, Zhang asserts that institutions need to facilitate this more broadly across the disciplines. He writes that supporting entrepreneurship-focused learning opportunities would create more revenue generation opportunities for institutions, ensure great ideas do not go undiscovered, and better equip students for their future careers. “Forgoing our chance to transform more of our universities into hubs for venture creation would be a lost opportunity,” concludes Zhang.
