While I am not entirely sure that a university who receives money to be used to grants (if they money is tranferred to them before it ever gets decided who it will pass to after that) doesn’t actually own that money once it is given to them (and therefore disagree with the statement that “you cannot invest money that is not yours to begin with”), I totally agree with the quoted statement above. It is unfair to apply one standard to a student who can afford to pay their own way and another to a student who has to sign rights away because they are accepting aid. And to add another insult to this, I just read a very compelling article that wealthier students are actually receiving a large portion of a this aid at US colleges proving that the system is further flawed.
I think a lot depends on context. For instance, I got a mini-grant as part of a recent project at our university to help promote the use of OER. As a recipient of this mini-grant (or money distributed from a larger grant on the campus) I had to agree to review an OER textbook and publish this review with a Creative Commons license. So in a sense, the University was telling me what I needed to do with copyright in order to earn the money. Since it was something I wanted to do anyways, it did not feel like an infringement on my rights. If I had disagreed with the terms, I could have refused the mini-grant and also the education about OER that came with it. If the terms of the grant are made plain up front, then it feels like I have a choice either way to take advantage of the learning opportunity or not, and to abide by the requirements for publishing if I do. I think the biggest problem comes when there are not alternatives for students who feel they must accept terms because there is no other option. Overall I think students should never be cut out of the rights to their own creative work as learners, but I can see some advantages, in certain circumstances, to asking that these rights be shared in some way, depending on how it is done and on how much choice one is actually really given.
Good point raising the issue with regards to funders of OER projects requiring open licenses. I feel that it is perfectly reasonable for the contractor of commissioned work to retain copyright (and determine the preferred license.) The power of OER is that OER funders can assign copyright to the contractor on condition of using an open license. This way both parties win! The OER funder contributes to the growth of the commons while the contractor receives the benefit of recognition through copyright.
The only time that an institution, in my opinion, has any rights to student work is if the student received financial support to create that work…for example, if a student is being paid or has a scholarship based on their work on a particular project or product. This is similar to an employer/employee relationship.
@mackiwg: please find reply below 
Do you think there are grounds for institutions to assert copyright over student work? If so, provide examples and justify your reasons.
LIDA103: In my opinion it depends on the nature of the students project. If the institution is spending so much money on the projects providing resources etc. then it is only fair that the institution may assert copyright over the students work. However, the student needs to be acknowledged as part of the project lead.
How do you feel about others sharing copyright and/or intellectual property rights over your creative work as a learner?
LIDA103: In my view as a learner, my mind-set is for learning and open to possibilities. Since I am happy to contribute to knowledge, I sometimes feel honoured if my professors find my work useful and they will like us to share the rights for it. Sometimes it also depends on the nature of the projects and the extend to which I will be comfortable with people sharing the rights with me.
What are the impacts of ownership and copyright over learner work as they relate to the quality of learning?
LIDA103: Ownership and copyright is a sensitive matter when it comes to the learners work. The ownership process will depend on the university where the learner is stationed. If the project is being sponsored by the university, then it implies that the learner will know from the beginning that whatever comes out of it, will be as a result of their hard work yet owned by their universities. This may negatively or positively impact on the learner’s commitment to work and quality of learning. However, if the student spends considerable amount of time and funds on the research, it is only fair that learners retain the copyright but grant permission the institution to distribute the outcomes of their work under the relevant framework of copyright. 
Thanks!:-).
Thanks for sharing @Adwoa - A thoughtful and balanced response highlighting a number of tensions regarding ownership of students’ work.
@mackiwg: Thanks for the feedback:-).
#lida 103
Greetings of the day to all. I think during the tenure of study, the student work are the property of the student and the teacher. After the student finishes the study. It is the institution who has the right over the student ‘s work. Moreover the guide who has helped has equal right over the work and with common consent it should be made available to public so as to lead to the development in the field of study.I perceive that the student and the guide and the institution all should be credited for the students work and afterwards it should be made available to public domain for the spread of knowledge.
#LiDA103 Students are the owners of their works. Institutions only supervise students’ works through an appointed Supervisor. Students own the ideas and they express these ideas. So, they have to enjoy the copyright. However, where students use institutional properties/facilities/equipment in the course of carrying out their studies, they may not own the copyright wholly.
#LiDA103 I do not share the sentiments that ownership and copyright will impact the quality of learning. I believe students will be more concerned about the success of their works than these two issues of ownership and copyright. No one will be ready to lay claim to the ownership of any substandard work. In other words, of what essence is the copyright/ownership of any poor work? Can we then subject this to empirical testing by hypothesising that there is no significant issues correlation between ownership/copyright and quality of learning?
The quality question is an interesting one.
Consider, for example, a learner studying a course on Entrepreneurship where the assignment requires the learner to propose a new business idea. Some learners may be reticent to share innovative business proposals openly, fearing that someone else will “steal” the idea, opting to save their best efforts for when they attempt to implement the concept in the real world.
In my opinion, it is not right for an institution to claim absolute copyright on student’s work. Rather it should be a joint right whereby the name of the student will be on the work with the acknowledgement of the institution where the work is done. Intellectual property is a tasking job and therfore the writer/author of such work must be known for references and further details.
@rosheedat
I totally agree, the student should get acknowledged for producing the work but since the institute is facilitating the student to create the work, they too should be acknowledged. The question now would be who controls this work? 50/50 or 60/40 share? If the student leaves and continues this work on their own? Is it still 50/50? Or should all work created at the institute be CC BY SA or CC BY NC SA?
#LiDA103
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Do you think there are grounds for institutions to assert copyright over student work? If so, provide examples and justify your reasons. No, I do not think institutions should have any control over student work. For example, if a student is in school studying education and creates an Adobe Spark video as part of a lesson… the student should have the right to keep the created lesson to use again in their career.
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How do you feel about others sharing copyright and/or intellectual property rights over your creative work as a learner? Overall, I think it limits the learning potential - as less materials are available.
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What are the impacts of ownership and copyright over learner work as they relate to the quality of learning? The quality of learning increases as the limits of ownership due to copyright decreases. Knowledge is power, the more accessible the information is… the better it is for everyone.
- Institutions sometimes do assert copyright over student work. Under Canadian copyright law, work produced under the course of employment is owned by the employer, not the employee who created it. Faculties of Architecture and Planning and Engineering, Dalhousie University, Canada, have unique intellectual property policies that are described in the Dalhousie Academic Calendar under the “Retention of Student Work” section, where all work executed by students as part of their academic programs automatically becomes the property of the University and may retain for exhibition or other purposes at any time and for an indefinite period.
- The claiming of a learner’s work by someone else is criminal fraud. To confiscate the work of a learner and not even acknowledge the damage, can cause havoc to a learner’s drive and motivation is ridiculous.
- The practice of student ownership and responsibility for their creative work results in higher-student achievement.