Does digitalization in higher education help to bridge the gap between academia and industry? An application to COVID-19

Abstract

There are three different types of activities performed in higher education institutions that, taken together, form the components of a trilemma in higher education. These include traditional academic activities (research and teaching) and those that aim to transfer knowledge beyond academia (industry-oriented activities). The increased use of digital technology that has resulted from the replacement of face-to-face encounters with digital interactions, or digitalization, is leading to transformations in higher education and is affecting the trilemma; universities face new challenges, and opportunities are emerging. Drawing on lessons learnt from COVID-19, the author explores whether digitalization is helping to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Keywords

Australia COVID-19 digitalization teaching trilemma for HEIs Triple Helix

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ABC News (2020) Humanities degrees set to double in price as Parliament passes higher education bill. ABC News. Politics, 8 October.

Angermuller

(2017) Academic careers and the valuation of academics. A discursive perspective on status categories and academic salaries in France as compared to the U.S., Germany and Great Britain. Higher Education 73(6): 963–980.

Bloomberg

(2018) Digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation: confuse them at your peril. Forbes, 29 April.

Callaway

(2020) Will the pandemic permanently alter scientific publishing? Nature 582: 167–168.

Canvas (2020) State of Student Success and Engagement in Higher Education. Available at: https://www.instructure.com/canvas/state-of-student-success (accessed 20 October 2020).

Cavoli

Lin

Márquez-Ramos

(2020) Insights for Australia – regions in foreign trade. In: Umiński

Nazarczuk

(eds) Regions in International Trade. Warsaw, Berlin: De Gruyter Open Ltd, pp. 138–159.

Clark

(1983) The Higher Education System: Academic Organization in Cross-National Perspective. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Danson

Todeva

(2016) Government and governance of regional Triple Helix interactions. Industry and Higher Education 30(1): 13–26.

Degryse

(2016) Digitalisation of the economy and its impact on labour markets. Working Paper 2016.02, European Trade Union Institute, Brussels, Belgium.

10.

Dobbins

Knill

Vögtle

(2011) An analytical framework for the cross-country comparison of higher education governance. Higher Education 62(5): 665–683.

11.

Duffy

(2020) University fees to be overhauled, some course costs to double as domestic student places boosted. ABC News, 18 June.

12.

Etzkowitz

(2015) Rendezvous of the ‘Third Kind’: Triple Helix origins and future possibilities. Industry and Higher Education 29(4): 243–247.

13.

Etzkowitz

Leydesdorff

(2000) The dynamics of innovation: from national systems and ‘mode 2’ to a Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations. Research Policy 29(2): 109–123.

14.

Financial Times (2020) Why workers in some countries are more comfortable about returning to the office. 24 August.

15.

Gerrard

(2000) Virtual universities – the way ahead? Industry and Higher Education 14(5): 317–326.

16.

Gibney

(2020) The pandemic mixed up what scientists study – and some won’t go back. Nature 582: 173–174.

17.

Grigg

(1994) Adopting an entrepreneurial approach in universities. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 11(3–4): 273–298.

18.

Group of Eight Australia (2020) Enabling Australia’s Economic Recovery Through Supporting Research Excellence. Available at: https://go8.edu.au/publication-enabling-australias-economic-recovery-through-supporting-research-excellence (accessed 9 September 2020).

19.

Hagerer

(2019) Universities act differently: identification of organizational effectiveness criteria for faculties. Tertiary Education and Management 25(3): 273–287.

20.

Hall

Hooper

(2008) Australia’s exports of education. Bulletin (Reserve Bank of Australia), June, 12–17. Available at: http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2008/jun/pdf/bu-0608-2.pdf (accessed 28 October 2020).

21.

Hillier

(2018) Bridging the digital divide with off-line e-learning. Distance Education 39(1): 110–121.

22.

Iansiti

Richards

(2020) Coronavirus is widening the corporate digital divide. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/03/coronavirus-is-widening-the-corporate-digital-divide (accessed 26 October 2020).

23.

Ledford

(2020) The coronavirus outbreak could make it quicker and easier to trial drugs. Nature 582: 172.

24.

Longhurst

Stone

Dulohery

, et al. (2020) Strength, weakness, opportunity, threat (SWOT) analysis of the adaptations to anatomical education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Anatomical Sciences Education 13(3): 301–311.

25.

Mallapaty

(2020) Scientists’ worlds will shrink in the wake of the pandemic. Nature 582: 169–170.

26.

Márquez-Ramos

(2020) Bridging the gap between academic and policy-oriented activities in higher education institutions. In: 6th international conference on higher education advances (HEAd’20), 2–5 June 2020, Universitat Politècnica de València, pp. 883–892.

27.

Márquez-Ramos

Mourelle

(2016) Selecting a suitable approach to analyze the future of higher education. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 228: 86–91.

28.

Márquez-Ramos

Mourelle

(2018) On the relationship between society and higher education: what path should we take? Distance Education 39(1): 19–36.

29.

Nogrady

(2020) Coronavirus shut-downs pose huge threat to Australian research jobs. Nature. Epub ahead of print 12 May 2020. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-020-01407-4.

30.

Norton

Cherastidtham

(2015) The Cash Nexus: How Teaching Funds Research in Australian Universities. Melbourne: Grattan Institute.

31.

Palumbo

(2020) Let me go to the office! An investigation into the side effects of working from home on work-life balance. International Journal of Public Sector Management 33(6/7): 771–790.

32.

Pietsch

(2020) The new social contract. Available at: https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/podcasts/new-social-contract (accessed 16 October 2020).

33.

Ramaprasad

Johnson

(2000) Transformation of the health care industry by eMedicine: from low-tech low-touch to high-tech high-touch. In: Proceedings – academia/industry working conference on research challenges 2000. Next generation enterprises: virtual organizations and mobile/pervasive technologies, AIWORC 2000, Buffalo, NY, USA, 27–29 April 2000, pp. 177–182. IEEE.

34.

Sciacca

(2019) The art of creating successful university-industry linkages: fostering the rise of the entrepreneurial academic. In: Practitioners Proceedings of the 2019 University-Industry Interaction Conference Series, University-Industry Engagement Conference, Sydney, Australia, 11–13 February 2019, pp. 25–37.

35.

Subbaraman

(2020) Sputnik moment or budget breaker: how will the pandemic alter research funding? Nature 582: 164–165.

36.

Tahar

Boutellier

(2013) Resource allocation in higher education in the context of new public management. Public Management Review 15(5): 687–711.

37.

The Economist (2020) Special report. The world economy: Zoom and gloom. 437(9215): 8–12.

38.

Viglione

(2020) How scientific conferences will survive the coronavirus shock. Nature 582: 166–167.

39.

Western Union Business Solutions (2020) The future of international education. Available at: https://business.westernunion.com/en-be/learning-center/white-papers/The-future-of-international-education (accessed 9 November 2020).

40.

Witze

(2020) Universities will never be the same after the coronavirus crisis. Nature 582: 162–164.