The Role Of Academia In The World Of Start-ups Can Be Way Better

My observation on this matter is simple, academia’s image and brand positioning must change. They must stay closer to reality. From a merely please-hire-our-students source kind of image to something better, bolder and relevant to a specific group like start-ups, is badly needed. What’s happening right now actually? Well, I see a large gap between academia and start-ups. Huge one. Younger generations keep asking themselves, “why do I need to go to a university when I can make good money from creating a start-up with resources on the how-tos I can get everything from the Internet”. This shouldn’t be ignored. Yes, the higher learning institutions are noticing this and trying their level best to find a remedy to it. Now, here’s another fact. Most of the collaborations and MoUs are ad-hoc and do not bear significant fruits except for short-term effects. They looked good in the newspapers or during the signing ceremony only. Nothing more. The gap, however, is still there. Nowadays, higher learning institutions are now ‘forced’ to be independent and search for their respective funds to survive. This situation could be a real opportunity to engage with the real world. It is time for academia to build a strong support ecosystem for the start-up community. Higher learning institutions are well-positioned for this purpose.What support ecosystem am I talking about here? I’m talking about the capability of bringing out the best of both academia and start-ups. Win-win for both. The idea here is to nurture academia’s capability to generate meaningful research-based data for the start-up community to take advantage of in their journey to change the world. Create a partnership, MoU or collaboration based on this.You see, many great decisions are usually made based on well-researched information, data or sources. The pace of start-ups’ growth is dependent pretty much on the decisions made. At the moment, start-ups lack this. Most decisions are driven by own experience, gutfeel, logic and observation. Yes, some use data-driven sources however many aren’t validated. They lack depth. While I don’t see anything wrong with the non-data-driven sources of information taken from other people’s experiences, mistakes, failures, success stories, theories, ideas and others, complementing the decisions based on well-researched information will also cement the quality of the findings for start-ups to use.Academia can help them with those. Besides that, what role can you play as an academic in empowering start-ups for the better? Here are some of them. Nurturing new entrepreneurs. Be part of their adventure when your students wish to build their start-ups from the university. Get them to start their journey with all the theories in hand and encourage them to make mistakes early. Mistakes done on paper are still bearable than during the execution stage which can be pretty nasty and expensive. Create a positive environment for them to grow, be it from physical space to data and collaboration initiatives with third parties. This effort may look small and insignificant but this is the very first step that will eventually help the nation to become stronger economically.Providing quality, relevant talents to start-ups. Academia must become a data-driven information hub that start-ups can rely upon when they are making decisions. But you have to play it right. How? It starts with relevant curriculums. Since the objective is to nurture strong future entrepreneurs and professionals who are going to become a specialist to support the entrepreneurs out there, the curriculum and how it is being taught or approached must evolve. You may appoint adjunct professors, invite credible entrepreneurs or create industry-academia forums and discuss more actively the continuous improvements of the curriculum and how best to deliver them. Stop using theoretical examples, instead use real-deal case studies and stories as points of discussion. Getting aggressive on the offensive involves paying it forward, CSR, inclusivity and sustainability into the curriculum and preparing the students to stay humble, not just focus on the monetisation alone but to create a better world for everyone. They must stay grounded and must be taught how to give back.Humanising those huge piles of research papers. Your research papers are good and they can’t be left alone in those archives for another researcher to refer to. Why? Simply because some of them might solve real-world problems by fueling decision-makers with data-driven information. Besides humanising them and having them published where people can read and learn, you can also discuss them actively as well. Fill up the activities calendar by establishing regular initiatives such as forums, talks, discussions,  partnerships or even projects that involve academia, the start-up community, other universities, the government and the members of the public. It’s time to evolve the research papers’ usage by creating a real impact on the world with those findings. Just one piece of advice though. As a university, producing research papers must be strategic. Thus producing relevant research paper topics is important and ditch random topics, please.Active involvement in real-life projects. It is time for universities to offer research-based or data-driven professional services to specific start-ups and start-up enablers to complement their journey to change the world. Be part of the project actively and be bold. It’s time to also forge partnerships with them, and advise them on the industry’s direction, what needs to be done and some other large-scale decisions.I’m no expert in academics, however, I’m sure the role being suggested here can help you to stay relevant in this ever-evolving internet era. We are no longer in the 80s or 90s. Do something significant now or risk becoming obsolete.