Given the current economic climate it is important to maximise academic impact on society. Measures of academic impact have been dominated by the commercialisation of academic discoveries, thereby failing to capture the complete spectrum of academic activities that lead to societal impact. In fact, universities do not appear to act as a significant source of intellectual property and technology for private companies. It is therefore questionable to use commercialisation of academic discoveries as the main metric to measure impact. Thisarticle highlights the importance of a broader view when assessing knowledge exchange between universities and other sectors and the measurement of academic impact on society, hoping to move beyond commercialisation.