Aim. The presented study aims to assess students' level of innovation and propensity for co-creation to determine the readiness of the internal environment to implement collaborative development mechanisms at a university. The hypotheses generated in the course of the study are tested using statistical analysis. Tasks. The authors address the following problems: analyze the motivation behind the respondents' participation in collaborative development with the manufacturer, the feelings and emotions from providing feedback, the most comfortable and acceptable ways of interaction with the manufacturer for the consumer; identify the factors of the internal environment that affect the feasibility of creating a platform for value co-creation at a university in order to develop the innovation infrastructure. Methods. The hypotheses are tested using a field study. The study involves a questionnaire survey designed to assess the respondents' involvement in value co-creation, their openness to and readiness for collaborative development with the manufacturer, and to determine their level of innovation (i.e. having new ideas and a passion for new knowledge). The questionnaire consists of ten questions. All questions are closed, with pre-defined responses. Some questions require the respondent to choose an answer using the Likert scale. This psychometric scale assesses the respondent's level of agreement/disagreement with a given statement. The questionnaire includes four groups of questions aimed at: obtaining general information about the respondent; assessing the respondent's level of innovation activity; determining the motivation behind the respondent's participation in collaborative development; determining the respondent's propensity for participation in value co-creation. The obtained results are analyzed using Gretl and MsExcel software packages. Results. The study shows that universities have substantial inherent prerequisites for creating a platform for collaborative development. It is found that the respondents have a high level of innovation, showing interest in innovative products and being among the first to purchase them; students also actively engage in thematic communities where they can share their experience of using a product with other users; the respondents prove to be active participants of the co-creation process, demonstrating their initiative not only by choosing companies that offer more opportunities for the customer to improve and update a product, but also by providing feedback and helping with product development. Conclusions. The obtained results confirm the hypothesis about the need to create a single platform for value co-creation at universities, which will facilitate the development of the universities' innovation infrastructure as a whole. This platform can be implemented through crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, or a university subdivision - a business incubator. Having these platforms at a university will have a positive effect on the innovation infrastructure, allowing the university to improve its rating.