As we pivot from critique to possibility, real-world precedent supports my vision: universities can be engines of commerce, not just knowledge. When structured well, applied ventures can yield real profit, student learning, and national development.
Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), founded in 1970, manages a vast portfolio of inventions, with over 1,000 technologies evaluated in a single year, generating millions of dollars in licensing revenue and attracting major industry-sponsored research. Its alumni have gone on to found companies like Google, Cisco, HP, and Netflix, proving that academic ecosystems can become commercial powerhouses.
At the University of Cambridge, research commercialization has led to the creation of firms generating over £30 billion in annual impact, with venture financing reaching £4 billion. University College London has spun out dozens of companies, including gene therapy breakthroughs, while Sheffield Hallam University actively partners with local businesses to innovate, develop real-world solutions, and create jobs. In China, Tsinghua University controls an extensive portfolio of billion dollar enterprises that emerged from labs and classrooms, thanks to strong government support and a commercialization mindset.
These are not special cases. They are proof that universities everywhere, when driven by vision, supported by policy, and committed to practical transformation, can become productive, self-sustaining, and deeply relevant.
Which brings me to a common objection in Ghana: that commercialization is not the mandate of our universities. There is a persistent school of thought that universities should focus solely on academics, research, and pure learning, leaving the hustle of business and commerce to the private sector. This view, however well-intentioned, is outdated and dangerously limiting.
If Ghanaian universities remain trapped in the colonial era model of producing clerks, civil servants, and book bound researchers disconnected from the economic needs of society, then we will continue to graduate thousands of students each year with degrees in hand and no work in sight.
Universities the world over have evolved beyond the classroom. In today’s knowledge economy, institutions of higher learning are not just centres of learning. They are engines of job creation, innovation, local manufacturing, urban development, and nation building. The ivory tower must come down, not in status, but in function.
Ask yourself: is there a more powerful learning outcome than a graduate who has developed, prototyped, marketed, and sold a real product before graduating? That is the true essence of higher learning, not theory alone, but the transformation of knowledge into value.
Commercialization is not a betrayal of the academic mission; it is its fulfilment. What is the point of teaching civil engineering if our students never build a road or bridge? What use is fashion design education if not a single piece of clothing is sewn for actual use? Why teach business administration if students never administer a real business?
In fact, a well-run commercial venture within a university environment offers more controlled, reflective, and ethical practice than the messy, often exploitative reality of the informal job market.
It is not commercialization that threatens the soul of the university. It is irrelevance. When the university becomes a living laboratory, a bakery producing bread, a solar lab powering nearby homes, a design school sewing uniforms for real clients, it begins to reclaim its proper place in society, not as a distant intellectual institution but as a development partner and civic innovator.
So yes, Ghanaian universities must commercialize, not in a reckless, profit chasing way, but in a thoughtful, mission aligned manner that deepens learning, strengthens research, and advances national growth.
The question should no longer be whether our universities should commercialize. The question must now be: what are we waiting for?
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