A report from a panel: “The proper role and position of elites”, held in the first conference on “education in Iran 1404”

Institutions of higher education were previously thought to be the centre of knowledge production and dissemination, but now they are expected to have a more active role in the development of national and regional economies, as well. Responding to the new expectation has currently led them to internal changes and evolution in how they interact with the social and economic environments. This change has created a new  generation of entrepreneurial universities. The leading indicator activity of such universities is the creation of  university‘s Spin-off. According to the laws and directives of our country, these companies are supposed to be  Knowledge-based, founded by the outcomes of the university researches and acted in the field of high tech. But some universities, in our country, exceed the expectations and establish manufacturing and service- companies of their own. In other words, they’re, little by little, becoming manufacturing firms. Since the  traditional mission of universities is teaching and research, some conflicts arose between the main mission of  the universities (research and teaching) and the new task of entrepreneuring. This paper examines these  conflicts and finally provides suggestions to resolve these conflicts. This paper is a descriptive - analytical  study and data is collected by using library resources, electronic research databases, author’s experience and  In-depth interview with a technology-park authorities and managers of the company established in above mentioned incubator.