A new hope for the university: An engine of innovation, talent and societal impact

This article is part of the recently released Future of Universities Thoughtbook | Entrepreneurship Edition, a continuation of UIIN’s FUT_ series that gathers global leaders to reimagine the role of universities in society. This new volume brings together 35 perspectives exploring how higher education can evolve through entrepreneurship, innovation, and new models of engagement. You can download your copy for free until December 31st here.

The co-authors of this article, Prof. Dr. Todd Davey and Arno Meerman, invite readers to rethink universities from the ground up. Todd Davey, Associate Partner at UIIN and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at IMT-BS, is an internationally recognised expert on innovation and the entrepreneurial university. Arno Meerman, CEO and founder of UIIN, is a leading voice in university-industry collaboration and the professionalisation of engagement practices.

Together, they explore what might emerge in a world without universities, and what must change to ensure these institutions continue to drive talent, knowledge, and societal progress in the future.

Introduction 

Great societal leaps happen when we briefly ignore the present reality and embrace all possibilities. The Wright brothers didn’t start by improving the airship; they asked, “How could we fly?” When creating the internet, Tim Berners-Lee didn’t seek to connect telephones or improve faxes; he asked, “What if all information was linked?”. If we applied the same first-principles audacity to higher education, what would we design — not focusing to preserve its current forms, but to solve the defining problems of our century?

Act 1: A world without universities 

Suppose, for a moment, that universities did not exist. There are no lecture halls, no ivy-covered buildings, no sprawling campuses. Yet, the foundational needs of a thriving society remain. We would still need to cultivate brilliant talent, drive innovation, and advance our civilisation through entrepreneurship. We would still face staggering societal challenges: a global crisis of purpose and power, the existential threat to planetary and human resilience, the persistence of scarcity and poverty, and the forces of deglobalisation clashing with a world that desperately needs collaboration.  

What would emerge to fill this void? In their absence, new architectures would rush in to claim the space. Corporate titans would forge their own academies, training employees in the brutal, fast-changing skills of the market while their R&D capabilities form centres of creation which double as incubators. Digital and physical platforms would become bustling marketplaces where expert guides and AI tutors sell learning à la carte, their lessons verified by a constellation of blockchain-stamped micro-credentials.  

Communities might expand libraries into innovation hothouses with makerspaces, run peer-to-peer training programs or schools, and crowdfund local problem-solving. Governments would expand their national institutes to lead in long-horizon research and vocational training, while philanthropic consortia would pour resources into global challenge programs. We might even witness a return of the medieval guilds—networks of practice where mastery is earned in workshops, not lecture halls, and where freelance scientists band together as modern R&D guilds to chase the difficult, long-shot problems that no single firm will fund. 

Act 2: What we lose without universities 

Each of these models is a fragmented and divided piece of something bigger. While the approaches may produce job-ready skills and push prototypes into the world, there remains a gaping hole in our society. 

The integrity of knowledge

Without universities, a widely trusted, impartial steward of knowledge would disappear. Empirical facts and evidence-based knowledge would give way to proprietary silos, and information would be shaped by the interests of those who control it, leaving humanity without a neutral ground for learning from past mistakes. Knowledge would be owned by a company’s worldview, an AI engine regurgitating fake news, or influencers trying to sell their opinions or their sponsors’ products. No institution would remain to act as a global referee for credentials or to educate a mass of critical thinkers capable of identifying, understanding, and implementing solutions to complex problems. 

The engine of innovation

We would face a major shortfall in the training of scientific workers in essential fields like technology, medicine, engineering, and mathematics. Most importantly, an enormous percentage of the world’s blue-sky research would be lost. This foundational, curiosity-driven research, which led to the invention of the GPS, the internet, the laser, and the serendipitous discovery of penicillin, would simply cease to exist, as would the resulting patents. Companies are excellent at the “D” in R&D, but universities are uniquely specialised in the “R.” The essential infrastructure for grand observatories, longitudinal datasets, and ethically governed biobanks would have no obvious steward. 

Promoting societal progress

Effective public debate would lose its neutral ground, replaced by competing interests. Universities’ entrepreneurial role would also shrink: there would be fewer safe places to test ideas before they are “market ready,” burning the bridges between foundational research and new ventures. Important innovation ecosystems would lose a home base, and future cohorts would miss the opportunity to learn how to build something valuable and durable with others.  

In short, to imagine a society without a university is to imagine a brain with a damaged hippocampus (memory) and impaired prefrontal cortex (critical thinking)—leaving the person with only their reptilian brain and little resistance from anything else. 

Act 3: What we need universities to be 

Thus, the question is not whether universities should exist, but rather: what is the purpose of a university in the modern world? The future university is an open platform for society; networked, fluid, and deeply embedded. If we were to rebuild it from first principles, we would: 

Forge the future human

Society needs individuals who are informed, open, and ethically courageous. We need leaders and citizens who can create and manage organisations that are ambitious yet social-minded, who can enable economies of both scale and scope, and who give back more to society than they take. 

Rebuild the curriculum around challenge

Learning must become interdisciplinary, experimental, and intensely collaborative. Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD programs must be redesigned around a practice-oriented, project-driven model. PhD programs would be aligned not just with research excellence, but with entrepreneurial, industrial, and societal ends. 

Lead with a permeable talent ecosystem

Universities must act as places for continuous learning, beyond graduation, offering short, flexible courses and training programs that help professionals adapt to new technologies, employer and societal needs. This constant exchange of talent and ideas blurs the line between “academic” and “practitioner,” thereby enriching both sectors. 

Become a regional anchor

The university can transform into the anchor tenant for a region’s innovation ecosystem, providing a home base for local businesses, startups, and social organisations to foster a community for innovation. 

Transform into a Living Laboratory

In contrast to the traditional, siloed institution, this future university must become a living lab, a nerve centre for innovation and problem-solving. This model would allow the university to facilitate networks by bringing together businesses, government agencies, and the community. 

Act as a research and venture launchpad

By reorganising into challenge-focused institutes with a project-driven curriculum, the future university can become a launchpad for experimental research and new ventures. Successful concepts and prototypes can be rapidly supported by dedicated innovation studios fully equipped with labs and maker spaces. 

Act as a neutral forum

In a post-truth world where common ground is hard to find, universities have a critical opportunity to re-establish themselves as a neutral forum. They can bring opposing parties together to engage in reasoned debate and discuss shared problems in a safe, neutral environment. 

Act 4: What we need universities to do 

Recognising these principles, the changes universities must make are clear and urgent. 

Shatter silos

We must transition a significant portion of research and educational activity out of the traditional faculty model. Instead, we should restructure into challenge-focused, collaborative institutes that address grand societal problems like climate change or social inequality. This new structure would facilitate a project-based curriculum where students from different disciplines work side-by-side on 2–4-year keystone projects with companies, NGOs and government agencies. This builds career pathways from the educational experience directly into jobs and develops the human-centric skills that complement the rise of AI. For example, a “Global Health & AI” hub would unite students from medicine, computer science, ethics, and sociology. 

Unlock knowledge

To shorten the scientific process and foster real-world impact, universities must embrace a new model of collaboration. This means actively supporting and creating IP structures that encourage open, transparent, and collaborative research. Research collaboration between universities, industry and government should start from the definition of the research question, through the discovery process into development. Instead of treating intellectual property as a proprietary fortress to be guarded, universities should adopt a principle of open and collaborative IP management. This frees up the exchange of ideas and positions the university as a launchpad for new ventures, which allows them to partner with accelerators and innovation studios to help speed up the transition from research to application. 

Redefine success

The current framework for success, which often rewards only research publications, must be re-evaluated. Universities need to advocate for and lead the way in new national and international frameworks that reward a broader range of contributions, including successful graduate careers, reskilling, regional innovation, and the successful launch of new ventures. Driving such systemic change would require bold, collaborative leadership, e.g., scientifically skilled professionals as founders and CTOs of their own companies, moving flexibly between academia, industry, and government. 

Serve a new era

For the university to function as a hub of innovation, its internal systems must treat all stakeholders (i.e. students, researchers, and external partners) as customers. This means creating a professional, proactive, and lean administration that delivers exceptional service for all these groups, rather than being a bureaucratic minefield. By focusing on the needs of these customers, the university can attract and retain the best talent and partners, ensuring it remains an essential part of society’s fabric. 

Educating in an AI world

Research has shown that relying on AI can dull our senses and our brain’s capabilities. With that in mind, we must design engaging education that encourages students to work with and without AI. We must teach them how to master AI use without dumbing down their capabilities and add value that AI cannot. Curricula and pedagogies could be built around:

• Positioning humans as initiators, leaders and collaborators. 
• Developing critical thinking, problem-solving and ethical reasoning. 
• Developing adaptability, entrepreneurship and creativity. 
• Building social and emotional intelligence and cohesion. 
• Understanding human-AI interaction, behaviour, and social consequences  
• Understanding the historical development of our societies and human activity. 
• Understanding challenges of sustainability and regeneration. 

Finally… 

Taking meaningful steps into an uncertain future is what we as humans do. Now is the time for our most important institutions to do the same and show us the way, to embrace the challenges facing humanity rather than retreat into what we know. What we need is bold leadership, greater engagement, and a proven approach for scientists and entrepreneurs alike. 

Ready for more?

If this vision of the future university sparked your interest, don’t miss the contribution by Judy Raper, A vision for entrepreneurship inspired by TEDI-London, in the upcoming FUT_ Entrepreneurship Edition. Drawing on her leadership across academia and innovation, she explores how universities can reimagine their structures, partnerships, and impact.

More articles from the Future of Universities Thoughtbook | Entrepreneurship Edition will be released in the coming weeks, but the full book is available for free until December 31st.

Stay tuned for more visionary perspectives on how universities can evolve as entrepreneurial, impact-driven institutions.

Todd Davey (author) is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at IMT-BS and an Associate Partner at UIIN.
Arno Meerman (author) is the CEO and Founder of UIIN.