It is hard to change a lab coat for a pinstripe suit. New figures from the Higher Education Funding Council show that Britain's university professors are licensing more patents to business but starting fewer companies. That is good news for British industry.

Britain only has two ways to compete in an open-trading world. It can offer cheap widgets, by paying less to workers, or it can innovate, and make more widgets or make them better. Only the second route offers higher living standards and sustainable economic growth.