The impact of university-industry collaborations on academic values

Abstract

The question that I propose to examine in this study is whether this trend -- the erosion of academic values -- can be substantiated from empirical data. The hypothesis is that university-industry collaborations would threaten traditional academic values. In this connection, the broad question of interest is: Does academic involvement in industry-related research affect teaching and research? More specifically, does university-industry collaborative research reduce teaching time, limit the opportunity for publication, and chill collegial interactions? What benefits, in turn, do academics receive from involvement in industry? Do the benefits, if any, justify their opportunity costs (e.g., less time for teaching, publication barrier, interference with collegial interaction)? The purpose of this study is to explore these questions with the survey data from Iowa State University (ISU).