The University as Idea Factory

"Today, intellectual property comprises an estimated 90 percent of the value of the Fortune 500. For the world's biggest and most successful companies, tangible things like land, equipment, mineral holdings, buildings, vehicles and inventory provide only 10 percent of their value. The rest of their worth, the overwhelming majority, comes from ideas. Those legally protected ideas, collectively, are worth over $40 trillion."

"The fact that intellectual property is source of the overwhelming majority of wealth matters to higher education because we are idea factories. In a world where ideas are the only valuable currency, we are the mint. This is, in part, because of the economic importance of university research. In biotechnology, for example, 15 percent of patents are directly linked to university research."

"Today, 90 percent of patents are filed by college graduates, and 75 percent of all high-value patents are created by persons holding university graduate degrees. Colleges and universities are the source of virtually all the value in the contemporary economy through the thinkers they train."

Intellectual property now represents 90 percent of Fortune 500 company value, a dramatic increase from 17 percent in 1975. This shift reflects the economy's transformation from tangible assets to ideas as primary wealth sources. Universities function as idea factories through both research and education. University research directly links to 15 percent of biotechnology patents, while educated graduates create the vast majority of economic value. College graduates file 90 percent of patents, and 75 percent of high-value patents originate from university graduate degree holders. Despite claims from prominent dropouts that college is unnecessary, higher education remains fundamental to innovation and wealth creation in the contemporary economy.

Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs