History of the concept and origin of the 4GU community

Universities have continued to evolve their role, originally focusing on education and gradually into research. These are considered the 1st and 2nd generations of university development. 

In 2009, the notion of a 3rd Generation University was introduced to describe a university that is becoming a more active participant in value creation. A key part of this idea is knowledge transfer – the university generating value and “transfers” it to the private or public sector. 

More recently, universities have started moving beyond knowledge transfer to enabling value creation in the innovation ecosystem more broadly. The role of creating value in an ecosystem is based on mission-driven collaborative knowledge creation, open innovation and multi-stakeholder partnerships in the setting of a regional innovation ecosystem. A university driven by these values can be referred to as a 4th Generation University. 

In 2024, TU Eindhoven, based in The Netherlands, partnered with Elsevier to explore indicators to measure the progress of a 4th Generation University. There has been significant and positive interest in the report from around the world. Elsevier and TU Eindhoven sought feedback on the concept from a broader group of universities who together continued to evolve the thinking and decided to found this community to open the discussion to all universities.

Further reading

“The Fourth-Generation University: The New Era of Open Innovation and Ecosystem Thinking” by Marcel Bogers and Maarten Steinbuch.

“Towards the 4th generation university: a collaboration between Elsevier and TU Eindhoven” examines the transformative role of the Eindhoven University of Technology in delivering innovation and impact.

“Higher education must change course to thrive in a new era” by Prof Rufus Black, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Tasmania.
Universities need to think and act like the strategically central economic and social players they are and organize around rapidly solving the problems that are poisoning liberal democracies.