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Higher Education Policy

, Volume 26, Issue 4, pp 497–506 | Cite as

Third Stream, Fourth Mission: Perspectives on University Engagement with Economic Relevance

  • Andrew Kretz
  • Creso Sá
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Over the past three decades, university research activities have increasingly become organized towards external economic and social worlds. In this essay, we reflect on the observations and explanations made in papers published in Higher Education Policy on this topic, and discuss their contributions towards understanding university third stream activities. We build on this by considering the increased university support for student entrepreneurship that has pervaded higher education in the last several years and the implications of this trend for thinking about the economic relevancy of universities.

Keywords

third mission universities research economic development technology transfer entrepreneurship 
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Copyright information

© International Association of Universities 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Andrew Kretz
    • 1
  • Creso Sá
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of LeadershipHigher, and Adult Education, University of TorontoTorontoCanada

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