In recent years, collaborations between universities and business firms are proliferating. This essential mechanism seeks to advance the interests of universities, business, and societies (Orazbayeva et al., 2019). We attribute this development, amongst others, to the falling government resources for higher education on the one hand, as well as the increasing market competitiveness and growing demand for new products on the other hand. Anon (1974) defines university-business collaboration (hereafter termed UBC) as interactions between all parts of the higher education system and the industrializing economy. Literature emphasize that most UBCs are operationalized at the level of individual academic departments rather than at the level of a school or the entire university (Rybnicek and Königsgruber, 2019). This suggests the need to understand “how the attitude and skills of [successful] UBC practitioners emerge” (Orazbayeva et al. 2019, p.73).
The complexity of understanding this subject motivates seeking the views of diversified academics from across countries in the Southern and Northern hemispheres. Among others, some salient questions which intersect with the current discourse in academia and industry will be discussed in our panel:
- What channels of university-business collaboration exist in your university?
- What incentives are provided by your university or country to motivate academics to collaborate with business?
- What competencies of academics play a role in the successful implementation of university-business collaboration?
- Could university-business collaboration’s intentions be taught at graduate schools?
- Does the practice of university-business collaboration conflicts with the core duties of academics in teaching and research activities?
- How will be the future of university-business collaboration in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which is resulting in a global economic crisis?
Join us on 28 of April on Zoom
Time: 14:45 – 15:45 German Time