The Nexus Knowledge-Market and Innovation in University Education: Lessons Learned from University Start Ups

The pace of evolution of the university education lags behind the changes in the labour market and it is necessary to accelerate the innovation in the University education to prepare young people to face a new world order. An empirical search among a relevant sample of the start ups of the University of Palermo has been carried out in order to identify possible guidelines for the innovation of several curricula. The authors selected the founders of the new companies as privileged witnesses of the connection between knowledge and market due to their experience gained in commercialize knowledge acquired through their university education. The empirical search pointed out several regularities, common to founders with different backgrounds, about transversal skills that could be used to innovate the university education.