Question

Does the lure of profit shift the university's mission away from basic research? Please discuss briefly.

Answer 1

University's basic research is expected to benefit public at large rather than a company or any other organization. In the recent times the concept of academic capitalism has gained narrative where industry-university cooperation has been alleged to have tended to move away from conducting basic research for public good.

Most of the universities that use taxpayer's funds to function are expected to conduct research for benefiting the society as a whole. For example, research in medicine or essential drugs, vaccince etc. are sorts of programmes aimed at public good.

In my view it is true that academic capitalism in the form of industry-university cooperation has commercialized university education benefiting mainly the corporate bodies funding the programmes in the universities.

Government should use innovative models using regulations to encourage conduct of basic research in the universities.