Archive for November 2011
There was a time when the JKUAT University was associated only as an engineering University but whether that maxim still holds true is a debate for another day. The JKUAT University started operating in 1984 mainly as a middle level College offering courses in engineering and technical disciplines. It got a boost in its profile when the Japanese government decided to fund it. It hence became a University with a strong emphasis on engineering and technical education. It even surpassed the University of Nairobi as the University of Choice in engineering related courses.
However, the Japanese withdrew funding for the University in 2001 and handed it over to the Kenyan government. From then on the University has embarked on a rapid diversification mode. It now offers courses in a wide range of disciplines; from humanities, through the liberal arts to the sciences. But for a University that wanted to model itself as the MIT of Kenya; did it loss its cause? Now, you must understand that this must be very desperate times for Kenyan Universities. With the funding from the exchequer dwindling by the day, the University, like its counterparts in the country, had to resort to other means of generating income in order to make it self sustainable. It therefore had to start courses in humanities and other disciplines in order to generate income. Let’s face it, there is no way they could have attracted enough self sponsored students for a technical course such as mechanical or electrical engineering.
However, the University must also strive to maintain its identity as a technical University even as it tries to become a financially viable institution.
What are the top ten Australian Universities? There is no official government ranking of universities in Australia. However there is a number of university league tables produced every year by relevant bodies such as the Melbourne Institute, The Australian Newspaper, The Good Universities Guide, THES and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s academic ranking of world universities.
The Melbourne Institute (operated by the University of Melbourne) has produced its own ranking of the international standing of Australian universities. This ranking is based on a number of performance indicators such as international standing of staff, views of Deans and CEOs, resources, undergraduate programs, undergraduate intake and graduate programs.
According to Melbourne Institute 2007 the top ten Australian Universities (in order of ranking) are: Australian National University (ANU), University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Monash University, University of Western Australia (UWA), University of Adelaide, Macquarie University and Queensland University of Technology. From this ranking ANU was the number one Australian university in terms of international standing and reputation, followed by Melbourne and Sydney. Is this result representative? Here we will analyze and compare it with the other two famous international league tables – THES and Academic ranking of world universities (ARWU).
Ranking Comparison:
- The list of top four universities produced by the Melbourne Institute are the same in ranking order as THES and ARWU 2007. We are confident to say that they are the Best Four – ANU, Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland.
- Group of Eight (Go8) Universities are among the top 8 universities as ranked by the three different league tables. These include the Best Four and the rest of the group – UNSW, Monash, UWA and Adelaide.
- Macquarie and QUT are among the top ten list (after Go8) in the Melbourne Institute and THES league tables.
The practice of technology transfer can greatly benefit an organization. What is technology transfer? It is the sharing of technology between two or more organizations. Usually, one organisation has developed a new technology and licenses it to the other organization, whose goal is to commercialize that technology. For instance, a university who has developed a new technology may license that technology to businesses so that the businesses can develop the new technology into a product, process, application, or service.
Who are the organizations who are involved in technology transfer? Universities and other primary research organisations regularly license their technologies to businesses. Also, businesses involved in different fields may benefit from this sharing.
Parties on both sides of an agreement benefit. The researchers who developed the technology earn licensing fees, and the organisation who has licensed it can develop and manufacture it into a patented product or service to be sold, while avoiding rising research and development costs.
Many opportunities have emerged because of tech transfer. Fields like biotechnology and diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, energy and engineering, and microelectronics and optoelectronics are all making use of technology transfer. Researchers can now develop a technology, and then license it out so that organisations with other specialized skill sets can take it further. Researchers may be looking for organisations who can further develop the technology. These organisations may have superior manufacturing, marketing, and distribution capabilities.
Tech transfer also occurs so that the technology can be applied in different fields than what is was designed as well. The researchers may have developed and been able to use the technology in one field, but license it out for use in other fields. For instance, the developer of the technology might be capable of exploiting the technology in diagnostic applications, but might not have the capability to exploit it in therapeutic applications, so they could license it out to a therapeutic application focused organisation. Finding available tech transfer opportunities and capitalising on them may be just what your organisation needs to develop that new product or service that you’ve been searching for.