Indian Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley: The Making of a Transnati ...

Stanford, in 1953, was the first university in the country to institute an Honors Cooperative Program, through which working professionals could be updated in their specialty. The program represented the efforts of Terman to foster close and enduring ties between the university and the local technological industry, basing it on the electronics companies’ need for access to research and potential employees. The program, offered through the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD), continues to exist today and allows companies to send their full-time employees, on company-provided financial support, to take classes that are offered either through Internet streaming video at the students’ companies or on campus. There are twelve participating engineering departments. In 1961, there were 32 companies participating in the program. Currently, the SCPD is in partnership with over 450 member companies and government organizations and delivers academic programs to more than 5,000 students annually.

Similarly, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), an independent, nonprofit research institute, was set up in 1946, whose primary aim was to pursue practice-focused, nonprofit research that did not fit within the traditional tasks of a university. It was established with a large loan from Stanford. The institute and Stanford’s Engineering program each had more than $2 million in government contracts, amounts that would increase tremendously as the Cold War progressed.⁴

However, it was through the creation of Stanford Industrial Park in 1951 (now called Stanford Research Park) that the ties between the university and the region were inextricably cemented. Stanford owned 8,000 acres of land, and real-estate developers sought it with avid interest to cater to the region’s steadily growing population. Meanwhile, student enrollment almost doubled following the Second World War, and the university decided to extend its campus (Luger & Goldstein, 1991).