Research Commercialisation in New Zealand Universities: Public Sector Accountability and Reporting Challenges

Anil Narayan
Auckland University of Technology
New Zealand

Abstract:
The acceptance of commercialisation as the “third mission” by many universities is receiving much greater attention in policy debates surrounding tertiary education development in New Zealand and internationally. Universities are now expected to take on a much broader role aimed at greater collaboration and alignment with the nations economic, social, and intellectual development goals. As commercialisation becomes firmly embedded in the universities mission, there is a gradual shift from a managed university to an enterprise university resulting in the emergence of new organisational forms and the blurring of the public-private divide. Hence public agendas for accountability and reporting relationships have become more complex and demanding. The requirement to act in a more collaborative and integrated manner has put universities under intense pressure to respond to a broad range of stakeholders demanding a greater range of “excellence” to emerge from these institutions. In New Zealand, commercialisation of universities is posing a new challenge to the current public sector accountability model as funding from non-government sources increases and new lines of accountability get established. The findings of this study indicates that research commercialisation is less comprehensively reported in the annual reports mainly because existing accountability mechanisms are not designed for collaborative programs. This paper recommends that annual reporting should be extended to incorporate “networked” accountability mechanisms reflecting a much broader understanding of the commercial and economic benefits of research commercialisation.