Universities and their inventors earned more than $1.8-billion from commercializing their academic research in the 2011 fiscal year, collecting royalties from new breeds of wheat, from a new drug for the treatment of HIV, and from longstanding arrangements over enduring products like Gatorade. Northwestern University earned the most of any…

When Robert W. Van Kirk released a study in January about selenium contamination in trout streams in southeastern Idaho, he expected some flak from the influential phosphate-mining industry. He did not expect to feel pressured by the administration of his own institution, Idaho State University, where he is an associate professor of mathematics.…

Describes how universities can end up holding an empty bag when companies with which they have formed technology-licensing deals go under. (EV)

Discussion of the downtown in Internet stocks related to education focuses on the challenges to colleges and universities as they select companies with which to work. Suggests that companies with strong business models will succeed since investors are looking for profitability, recognized brands, and mature leadership. (DB)

Stanford University (California) and the Yamaha Corporation have agreed to pool over 400 patents and patent applications, most involving sound synthesis, and to license them as a package along with rights to the trademark, and share the royalties. The deal builds on a 23-year relationship between Stanford and Yamaha, one which is both fruitful and…

Describes how a corporate deal made by the University of California at Berkeley with Novartis Corporation is not changing the school's research agenda, as critics feared it would. (EV)

Reports that many new technology companies are recruiting top academics to join their boards in an effort to gain credibility and capture the higher education market. Finds controversy between those who wish to influence the direction of those businesses in order to better serve college constituencies and those who see possibilities for conflicts…

States are starting to use cut-rate tuition to lure entrepreneurs and businesses that are planning to relocate. To provide the tuition bargain, states waive residency requirements for employees, spouses, and children who move to a state. (MLW)

A trend away from state support of university research with commercial potential is noted, because of state budget restraints, changes in political leadership, and the belief that support of university research is not an efficient way to help businesses and create jobs. Cuts in specific programs in Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska…

Discusses the increasing role of the London-based media conglomerate Pearson PLC and its subsidiary FT Knowledge in bringing together various Pearson assets in distance and corporate education. The company is developing partnerships with several elite institutions to develop course material for world-wide marketing. Other initiatives include the…

In search of increased support for graduate students in plant science and upgraded laboratories, the College of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, offered the college's expertise in exchange for major financial backing from the single company making the best offer. The resulting five-year, $25-million alliance with one…

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has created a profitable program for commercializing student and faculty research, investing with three venture-capital companies that agreed to pay extra attention to the university's technological innovations and developing an office park to promote local economic development and generate…

In the 13 years since the Federal Trade Commission began encouraging colleges and other educational institutions to cooperate with the emerging wireless-cable industry, partnerships with attendant benefits and problems have grown. For some institutions, the initiatives have brought substantial income and better distance-learning systems; for…

Managers of Apple Computer, the company that pioneered campus personal computing and later lost most of its share of the market, are again focusing energies on academic buyers. Campus technology officials, even those fond of Apples, are greeting the company's efforts with caution. Some feel it may be too late for Apple to regain a significant…

Describes educators' fear that a government proposal to help accommodate new Web-surfing cell phones and other hand-held devices could end up displacing instructional-television operations. The proposal could also undermine partnerships that educational broadcasters have begun negotiating with companies to create new speedy Internet services. (EV)