| Riassunto |
In the last few years, students, employers and the general public have been increasingly expecting higher education institutions (HEIs) to consider the professional relevance of their study programmes and its impact on the employability of graduates. One key activity from the policy perspective that is anticipated to contribute to this goal is university-business cooperation (UBC). This is not a new topic. In the last few decades, UBC has been described as ‘national innovation systems’, a ‘new mode of knowledge production’, the ‘entrepreneurial university’, (inter)national innovation systems and ‘the triple helix model’. Many of these concepts build on the assumption that UBC contributes to teaching and learning improvements by supporting graduates’ careers. Furthermore, on the basis of a large-scale survey of over 43,000 higher education graduates, the HEGESCO projects found evidence that career success depended on the ties between HEIs and the world of work. Graduates in programmes that encourage relevant work experiences, foster students’ motives and talents, and alert employers about what they could expect from HE graduates have been more successful in the labour market. UBC takes on several forms, but the most important are related to university science parks, the entrepreneurship of students, or students’ research activities connected to the business world. They have recently been perceived as a developmental necessity of HEIs. Some argue that they are appearing as a response to demographic and global changes, the re-emerged centrality of learning at work, occupational de-professionalisation, the repositioning of qualifications or the emergence of massive open online courses. Other scholars are more critical. They fear that UBC may lead to the trivialisation of disciplinary areas and changes in the relationship between research and teaching which relate to the proletarisation and hybridisation of academic roles. Developments and changes in HEIs also have important implications for the future developments of the citizenship regime. The modes and perspectives of UBC encompass various forms of research and development, the mobility of students, academics and employees, curricular cooperation or adult learning. The nature of UBC modes depends on several external and institutional factors as well as disciplinary particularities in terms of the academic tradition of teaching and learning towards practice. Following Bekkers and Freitas, the determination of UBC channels is based more on disciplinary origin, the underlying knowledge, the characteristics of researchers and the environment than sectorial particularities. Another important context is rooted in different regional and economic traditions. Todtling and Trippl describe differences and arising problems of peripheral, old industrial and metropolitan regions. According to them, peripheral regions are characterised by the dominance of SMEs, a low level of innovation and diffusion of knowledge. Old industrial regions are dominated by mature industries and large firms that require technical skills. Fragmented metropolitan regions have diversified industries and services but lack knowledge-based clusters and have insufficiently-developed links with industry. In the context of disciplinary and regional differences, researchers have recently been analysing some traditional beliefs such as : i) traditional universities are less supportive of UBC than non-traditional ones ; ii) larger companies are more in favour of UBC than small companies; iii) hard sciences show greater support for cooperation than soft sciences, etc. In the next section, this article first offers an overview of strategic UBC policy issues. Second, it systemises holistic UBC models, elements and processes. Third, based on a survey of enterprises in various European countries, it provides evidence concerning the following two questions: from the perspective of enterprises, which are the most practised UBC modes and their determinants? and, which group of factors determines a particular UBC mode? On this basis, it discusses how one should strategically develop a specific UBC mode. |
