University spin-out companies and venture capital

The creation of university spin-out companies that create wealth is a major policy objective of governments and universities. Finance is a catalyst of this wealth creation yet access to venture capital is a major impediment faced by these companies. In this article we adopt a finance pecking order perspective to examine the problems faced by those university spin-out companies seeking to access venture capital. We triangulate evidence from spin-out companies, university technology transfer offices and venture capital firms in the UK and Continental Europe to identify the problems and to suggest policy developments for these parties as well as government. We compare perceptions of high-tech venture capital firms that invest in spin-outs with those that do not, and also consider VCs’ views on spin-outs versus other high-tech firms. Our evidence identifies a mismatch between the demand and supply side of the market. In line with the pecking order theory, venture capitalists prefer to invest after the seed stage. However, in contrast to the pecking order theory, TTOs see venture capital as more important than internal funds early on. We develop policy implications for universities, technology transfer offices, academic entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and government and suggest areas for further research.     

校园中的流浪者[五]

Hunting, in which the young man was an apt scholar, was now the order of the day. Tiburcio was an artist in woodcraft as well as in his knowledge of the habits of animals and birds. On chilly or disagreeable days they would take out the pack of dogs and beat the thickets for the javeline. It was exciting sport to bring to bay a drove of these animals. To shoot from horseback lent a charm, yet made aim uncertain, nor was it advisable to get too close range. Many a young dog made a fatal mistake in getting too near this little animal, and the doctoring of crippled dogs became a daily duty. All surplus game was sent to the ranchito below, where it was always appreciated.     

Teaching and guilt: Exploring the feelings of teaching

The paper argues that in research on teachers' mental states, studies of teacher feeeling as compared to teacher thinking have been relatively neglected. It analyzes the nature and importance of guilt as one such feeling which connects the self of the teacher to the system in which the teacher works. Two kinds of guilt are discussed: persecutory and depressive. In relation to two studies of elementary teachers' working lives and of teachers' perceptions of employee assistance programs, four guilt traps of teaching are then identified. These are the commitment to care, the open-endedness of teaching, accountability and intensification, and the persona of perfectionism. Solutions to the guilt traps of teaching involve easing the accountability and intensification demends of teaching; building communities of collegues who can set their own professional standards and limits at school level and thereby reduce the open-endedness of teaching; and reducing the dependence on personal care and nurturance as the prime motive of elementary teaching.     

A Teacher's Response to ‘Reflection‐in‐action’

A teacher‐researcher questions whether Schon's Reflective Practitioner is an appropriate text for ensuring change in teaching practices. It is argued that teachers’ perspectives prompt a particular interpretation of ‘reflection‐in‐action’ that justifies individualistic, immediate and limited change strategies. Schon's rhetorical appeals can be interpreted as offering tacit approval for the existing craft culture; for the inhibiting effects of this craft culture to be effectively challenged, individual teachers need the supportive insights which collaboration can provide.     

Interactive multimedia systems for engineering education in acoustics,synthesis and signal processing

This paper describes programmable multimedia systems, developed at the University of York, which are used extensively for teaching on a variety of music technology and mainstream engineering courses. Software and hardware systems are described for the physical modelling of acoustic spaces, and for constructing interactive synthesis and signal processing networks. Details are given on how these have been successfully integrated into higher education programmes at York.     

Images and the ethics of inclusion and exclusion: learning through participatory photography in education

Participatory research methods directly engage with the topics that they set out to address. It is therefore no surprise that participatory research practice on the topic of educational inclusion and exclusion raises ethical issues for the participatory researcher that are themselves about inclusion and exclusion. This paper describes and analyses a pilot postgraduate course on the use of participatory photography in this area, and uses this analysis to illustrate the value of sensitive and reflexive participative research as a powerful educational practice. A multi‐ethnic and multinational group of students attended the course and explored the use of images as a qualitative research tool as a means to further developing their own sociocultural perspectives on inclusion. As a method, participatory photography was able to support students to represent their own perspectives on issues such as inclusion and diversity. Just as importantly, it facilitated inclusive teaching and learning, making it easy for students to take an active role in ongoing evaluation of the course and in devising their own assessment criteria. More significantly still, a deep exploration of practices of inclusion and exclusion was facilitated by the ethical issues that were raised and addressed during the research process.