Incubators should invest in students’ growth, not their ventures: UA contributors

“There is an unsettling gap between our pedagogical goals and the structural rewards of university,” write Teresa Kramarz and Kourosh Houshmand for University Affairs. The authors argue that many students in PSE will avoid taking risks out of fear of receiving a lower grade, yet the growth of on-campus incubators offers students a chance to be more daring and experimental in their learning. That said, the authors note that the main goal for many of these incubators is to help students commercialize their ideas and create marketable products. The authors argue that the true goals of these incubators should be much broader and should centre on the co-creation of knowledge, experimentation, tracking of progress, and building of relationships. The authors conclude that “[a]cademic institutions remain relevant precisely because they have the luxury, if not the mandate, to invest in students’ growth, not in their ventures.” University Affairs