Student organizations as knowledge incubators : The two utilities of student organizations

Abstract

Student organizations have two utilities; one social and one educational, but only the first of these utilities see national and common focus. This thesis will present the second, educational, utility and will find a role for this utility that better suit its potential. It will do this by discussing the current usage of student organizations by the state and universities, and show how student organizations can be compared to small- and medium sized enterprises. The educational potential in student organizations will be analyzed on the background of this comparison, and this will be put into the frames of the theory of the triple helix and its notion of universities third mission. This ends up in an argument that the best role of the second utility is that of a knowledge incubator, placed in the boundary of academia and industry. The thesis ends with a batch of suggestions of possible initiatives by the state, universities and student organizations.