Crowdfunding in Higher Education Institutions

Adopted within several fields, crowdfunding has been used by higher education institutions from different countries. Taking into consideration the literature provided by the scientific community relating to crowdfunding and the theoretical framework provided by the “Conceptual model for research in higher education philanthropy” delivered by Chan in 2016, this chapter will present, analyze, and discuss a single-case study: “Archeo-Staffora.” This is a crowdfunding campaign promoted on “Universitiamo,” which is the crowdfunding platform of the University of Pavia. One of the most interesting characteristics of this higher education institution is the fact that scientists try to go out from the university to meet their donors, and explain them the importance of supporting scientific research. Hence, through the single-case study methodology, this research aims at discussing how crowdfunding can be useful not only for its primary function, which is to gather funds, but also for what could be defined as its secondary function, which is involving the donors into the scientific projects, and even as its third one: reinforcing the Outreach of the university.

Crowdfunding is a potent tool for supporting innovation and research in science, but it is also relevant in teaching entrepreneurship. The purpose of this chapter is twofold: (a) summarizing the literature on Crowdfunding for Science, Teaching, and Education and (b) creating a research agenda.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge map to the literature review on crowdfunding in education based on scientific articles published in the Web of Science citation database. For this purpose, a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis using R-based Biblioshiny were used. First, the systematic review was used to identify relevant studies. Bibliometric analysis was used to obtain an overview of the field over time, as well as other research trends in the field. The study provides an overview of research, influential authors, sources, institutions, and countries. In addition, the study presents a knowledge map in the field of education crowdfunding, with an indication of the most productive research topics and their evolution over time. Recommendations for future research in this field were uncovered by qualitative content analysis.

The financial system is based on trust. Traditionally, trust has been created by using trusted third parties such as central banks, commercial banks, and stock exchanges. The need for third parties has been questioned by Alternative finance—alternative forms of finance outside the traditional banking and capital markets. Alternative finance has rapidly reshaped and redefined the financial sector, and the need for experts is growing. In addition to finance and information technology, Alternative finance is also linked to business, regulation, and various new technologies. It offers a wide range of perspectives and opportunities for experts. Alternative finance is based on practical innovations and applications. Its teaching should also be solution oriented. The starting point is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional financial system and the opportunities offered by new technologies. The teaching should focus on the latest phenomena rather than on specific technological solutions that are likely to become obsolete quickly. Looking far into the future and identifying new trends and technologies is essential. Start-ups, financial incumbents, and large technology companies are all experts in the digitalization of the financial sector and how customer needs are changing. Both collaboration with these experts and theoretical research on new technologies are needed. This paper presents a curriculum for Alternative finance, focusing on crowdfunding and decentralized finance, but also briefly outlining issues related to regulation, new technologies, and cybersecurity. The aim is to provide a basis on which it is easy to build deeper expertise according to one’s own interests, needs, and background.

The chapter discusses different types of teaching in the crowdfunding context. First, the authors discuss teaching about crowdfunding in the context of teaching open innovation in university settings. Five case studies are being examined, which are then compared to the answers of 19 academics who are teaching crowdfunding at their universities.

The Cambridge FinTech & Regulatory Innovation Program provides a comprehensive course program for financial regulators and policymakers from across the globe. In this case study, the rationale, delivery, and assessment of the program are presented, which allows unique insights into one of the most successful global higher education programs covering crowdfunding among other topics which are targeted at financial and regulatory professionals.

Research crowdfunding is a new fundraising tool adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs) to support innovation, entrepreneurial activity, and public engagement. This study explores successful ways HEIs manage and integrate research crowdfunding to provide new funding opportunities for university-born projects. We chose the case study of BiUniCrowd, i.e., the first reward-based crowdfunding initiative managed by an Italian University (University of Milano-Bicocca) open to the whole Academic community—students and alumni included—and evaluated as one of the best practices by the Knowledge Valorisation Platform of the European Union. We explore how to create an effective ecosystem that encompasses an internal organizational structure composed of a committed academic community, where innovative ideas are born, along with several outsiders, such as an established crowdfunding platform and financial and industrial partners. Our case study highlights the critical activities for successfully integrating HEIs in the research crowdfunding ecosystem: (i) building crowdfunding commitment within the Academy, (ii) co-creating with external partners in the selection and financing phases, and finally, (iii) providing entrepreneurial and crowdfunding knowledge to the academic community. The study concludes with managerial advice for HEIs.

Crowdfunding services try to make it easy for people to crowdfund. Almost any Australian adult can undertake a crowdfunding campaign. Academics at Australian universities who wish to undertake crowdfunding campaigns to support their research find that their university adds an additional layer of complexity. This paper uses the norms and counter-norms of science, described by sociologists of science over the last 80 years, as a way to explore this complexity. It draws on 22 interviews with academics and administrators involved in crowdfunding campaigns at two leading Australian universities and one crowdfunding platform. It explores issues for academics related to personal morality, social norms, organizational policies, public harassment, and conflict of interest. On the organizational side, it examines perceptions of missed opportunities, reputational risk, issues related to intellectual property, non-performance, misrepresentation, and missing payments. Academics who wish to undertake crowdfunding campaigns need to consider the issues that they might encounter and the support that their university might provide. They should understand how this new form of funding complements and challenges the norms that they and their colleagues work within.

This study focuses on how to tokenize educational assets and discusses how tokenization and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be operationalized and adopted to the higher education landscape to provide funds for students during their higher education studies. To that end, it builds upon the income-contingent loans and higher education funding literature to propose a system that captures the value of the student’s potential future income streams as a token to be offered to higher education stakeholders willing to invest in a young person’s future, make an impact toward the Sustainable Development Goals, or simply, to diversify their portfolios and hedge against market downturns. The Future Income Token “FIT” is conceptually devised through a literature review and builds on previous findings by the author. This interdisciplinary study fits into the blockchain, crowdfunding, and higher education finance literature. Given the increasing difficulty of mobilizing funds for higher education and, the almost universal, growing student loan default problem, it asks the question: What aspects of higher education tokenomics may give higher education stakeholders the incentive to contribute to a student’s education, that other forms of financing do not? Policy makers, practitioners, as well as theoreticians can benefit from the ideas and the findings of the study.

Crowdsourcing is increasingly used in the search for new solutions to a problem, which takes advantage of the collective intelligence of the community. The practice of crowdsourcing has been used in different sectors such as health, marketing, and education, among others. An emphasis is made on higher education because it allows one to take advantage of the knowledge of many people through virtual platforms, especially also for the use of crowdfunding of higher education institutions in Peru. The objective of this chapter is to identify the benefits that crowdsourcing could bring to higher education in Peru. The methodology employed was a literature review on crowdsourcing and education in Latin America with an emphasis on Peru. The results of the finding were that crowdsourcing allows automatic or personalized learning, creates questions for specific exams or class materials, and generates collaborative learning. However, in the Peruvian higher education sector there is a scarce presence of this methodology due to the lack of promotion in the institutions and the challenges that exist when applying it.