Commercialisation of academic research in higher education institutions of Pakistan

Abstract

Universities are complex and diversified institutions. Besides education and research, universities have now been assigned a new role of academic research commercialisation. Universities are pressurised to act as a bridge for transferring of knowledge to industries and generate resources. Commercialisation of academic research is still a new phenomenon for universities in Pakistan. Universities are facing challenges and difficulties in managing commercialisation activities along with teaching and research. In order to overcome these challenges, some support structures have been introduced in the form of Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC). The core rationale of this study is to explore the commercialisation activities in universities of Pakistan. Pakistani universities have support structures in the form of ORIC but still lacking behind in commercialisation activities. Qualitative research strategy and semi-structured interviews technique have been adopted. In this study two vice chancellors, higher education commission director, fifteen academic researchers and five ORIC managers were interviewed in five leading universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Content analysis has been used to analyse the data. The results shows that major obstacles in academic research commercialisation in Pakistan are applied and basic research culture, research budgetary constraints, immature industry, unstable political condition of the country and lack of qualified staff in ORIC. Based on the finding of the research, some recommendations have been proposed for successful commercialisation. A best practice model has been proposed for ORIC, Pakistan to follow.