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IQRipoff: Former U of R prez taps student research, keeps results |
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Contributed by Michael Bell
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Sunday, 24 September 2006 |
A Saskatchewan company is using students to develop its international marketing strategies, causing critics to raise questions about the line between learning and labour. Marketing professor Sylvain Charlebois is enthusiastic as he explains what the “Bridges to International Practice” program is and how it works.
“We have an international marketing class here and every semester we have a corporate partner who gives an official mandate to the classroom, and students are asked to respond to that mandate,” said Charlebois.
The University of Regina class he refers to is ADMIN 415 International Marketing, and it was in this course last semester that he oversaw the trial run of the Bridges program. The course is designed to help marketing students understand how a company, large or small, should approach an export market.
But through the Bridges program, ADMIN 415 is given a twist: a real corporation’s marketing needs are brought right into the classroom, and the research results become the property of the company.
“In order for us to provide our students with a business opportunity, we allow students to basically get a real mandate that involves a real product to be exported to a real targeted market,” Charlebois said.
In this case, the mandate is given by a Saskatchewan-based business called iQmedX.
iQmedX is a healthcare systems company under the leadership of David Barnard, the former president of the University of Regina. The corporation makes computer programs that medical clinics and hospitals might use to schedule and bill their patients. But to sell their software to private U.S. clinics and hospitals, iQmedX needs market information and a plan.
That’s where the students come in. From September to December of last year, 45 students in ADMIN 415 worked in teams to prepare a comprehensive marketing plan to export iQmedX’s IT products to U.S. healthcare businesses.
On Dec. 2, 2005, the top student teams presented their final marketing proposals to a panel consisting of three faculty members, two iQmedX executives and one representative of the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership.
Six students emerged as the winners of the contest, who moved on to an advanced marketing class in 2006. This class included a trip to the U.S., paid for by iQmedX, to conduct interviews with U.S. healthcare providers. Those six students (three teams) will present their final marketing proposals on April 5, 2006.
Rory Cain, director of operations for iQmedX, says the company is pleased to be a “good corporate community citizen” by contributing to the educational experience of the students.
But there is one catch. All the research and data that the students generate becomes the property of iQmedX.
“Students have to sign a letter of understanding saying that whatever they discover and all the proposals they do is kept in confidentiality. That’s very important, or else no (corporate partner) would deal with any classes,” said Charlebois.
Cain says the company requires a confidentiality agreement to protect their industry secrets. As students research, they might need inside information about their products or future products, but iQmedX does not want that information to get into their competitors’ hands.
“Those are sensitive things,” Cain said. “It’s information about us and our business specifically that would be sensitive.”
For Charlebois the confidentiality agreement, which is a condition for the corporate – university partnership, is worth it.
“We’re comfortable with that because of the benefits. Especially for the students,” he said.
Jamie Nugent, a Bridges participant, says the program was educational despite the workload that she describes as “almost like another job.”
For Nugent the U.S. trip was what made it worthwhile because she “got to actually see first hand what a market researcher does.”
Claire Polster, a U of R professor of sociology, agrees there may be educational benefits, but says that’s not the point.
“Yes, maybe some of the students benefited in some of the cases. But what are the costs and what about the principles involved in allowing certain organizations … to privatize the benefits for their particular needs and interests,” she said.
Polster points out that students are doing real work that iQmedX would otherwise have to pay someone to do.
“Students are paying a massive subsidy to this company. They’re doing all kinds of work for them in a course that they’re paying for,” said Polster.
In addition to having students “paying for the privilege to work,” Polster reasons that iQmedX is effectively getting a subsidy from a publicly funded university.
“The public is paying for some of the professor’s salary and for the infrastructure, which the business is also getting for free,” she said.
So just how valuable will the students’ work be to iQmedX?
Operations director Cain says that iQmedX made a cash outlay of $10,000 towards the cost of the students’ trip to the U.S.
He added that it’s hard to put an exact dollar figure on the value of the students’ research but “to sub (contract) out that type of marketing research to an outside company would have cost us a lot more than $10,000.”
He also says that iQmedX will value “the responses from all three teams, in terms of what they bring and the research they’ve done will certainly be analysed very heavily.”
Cam Cooper, a senior associate of a local data mining and research firm, says that professional marketers can make between $20 and $100 an hour depending on the needs of the client.
This means that if the week-long research trip the six U of R marketing students recently made to the U.S. had been privately contracted, iQmedX's final bill - just for wages - would have totaled in the range of $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the quality of research.
“There’s certainly an advantage for the company in having something like (the Bridges program),” Cooper said.
He adds that the students’ work alone wouldn’t be enough for iQmedX to make a final decision on the move to the U.S. market, but “you’re at least getting to first base on some issues without much cost.”
Claire Polster says that corporate – university partnerships are happening across a variety of disciplines, from biology to computing science, and thinks it’s important to question “the advantages and disadvantages of this whole phenomenon of allowing private corporations to access or gain control over certain aspects of the university for a fraction of the real cost.”
The next Bridges to International Practice program involves students researching the Chinese market for Hypor, one of the world's leading suppliers of swine genetics.
This article was written in March, 2006. |
Thought you should know
Written by Hugo Chavez on 2006-09-28 14:38:21
Projects like this bring in employers that are desperately needed in Regina. The most prosperous cities have managed to turn these projects into head offices and spin offs. Resulting in a booming new economy and the ability to build the type of city, we all want to live. Tolerant, Successful, Sustainable and inclusive. The investment cost to government is return tenfold in tax revenue and the multiplier effect.
Pragmatical speaking. | ...but look at it this way
Written by pelliott on 2006-09-29 13:22:56
Under other circumstances, sure it's fine. But the problem with this particular project is that it accepts private ownership of research results produced by a publicly-funded university. The privatization of university research is growing problem, sucking resources, copyright revenue, economic benefits and marketable research results away from the public who support the university. A core value of university research is that it should be shared with all humankind. The core value of this project is that results are subject to a confidentiality agreement imposed by iQmediX. That's indefensible. No university should agree to such an arrangement. | Written by Hugo Chavez on 2006-09-30 12:50:17
I still think it is the equivalent of complaining about sign and smoking bylaws. When referring to strikes and rock concerts.
| Written by pelliott on 2006-10-02 14:42:11
huh?  |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 September 2006 )
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