Industry and Higher Education

Given the normative changes in higher education at European, national and regional levels, together with social, economic, demographic and technological developments, universities need to adopt a client-oriented approach and to make this client orientation an integral component of their strategic planning process. The university's ‘clients’ should thus be involved in its strategic planning. This paper demonstrates how an importance–performance analysis applied to the perceptions of different groups of clients and stakeholders about the institution can be an effective tool in this regard. The proposed methodology will assist managers, and those responsible for university planning, to diagnose the internal situation of the institution by building matrices of points of excellence and deficiencies. In illustrating the effectiveness of this methodology, the authors stress the need for higher education institutions to move from a product orientation, based on the notion that the institution is best able to decide what its clients need, to a client orientation, based on knowledge of who its clients are and on a detailed investigation of their needs and interests.

Graduate development programmes such as FUSION continue to be seen by policy makers, higher education institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as primary means of strengthening higher education–business links and in turn improving the match between graduate output and the needs of industry. This paper provides evidence from case studies. The findings indicate that the practical application of academic principles in real-world settings provides a useful learning vehicle for academics, graduates and SMEs. Key success factors and strategies for overcoming obstacles emerged from the case studies. In light of these findings, the authors make tentative recommendations to aid the future delivery of similar programmes.

Spin-off firms may be seen as a key mechanism for the external transmission of knowledge developed at universities. The proliferation of academic spin-offs in recent years has led universities to develop specific rules for the regulation and management of the spin-off process. This paper draws on the Italian experience. More than fifty Italian universities issued spin-off regulations between 2001 and 2008. The author looks at the reasons why Italian universities have decided to issue these specific regulations to control the research spin-off phenomenon, assesses the similarities and differences between the regulations of various universities and examines whether and to what extent the regulations are useful.

The focus of this article is on the impact of cultural influences in academic knowledge transfer (KT). This aspect of the KT process was studied at Dutch and German technical universities. The analysis shows that professional values and identities play an important role in academic KT. Administrators in university KT offices were found to be influenced by values such as efficiency and profitability, like their counterparts in the private industry. At the same time, the KT personnel in both countries shared traditional academic values with the academic staff. With this ability to understand the interests of both the private sector and the academics, KT personnel at universities have taken on a bridging role in mediating between the non-profit interests of academia and the profit interest of external parties. It is argued that, due to the increasingly complex legal and administrative processes involved in transferring knowledge to external partners, KT managers are adapting to a functional niche in modern academic organizations by fulfilling this important ‘bridging role’.

This article outlines the implementation of a service-learning approach in an entrepreneurship programme using an ‘economic gardening’ strategy. Economic Gardening through Service-Learning (EGS-L) is an approach to economic development that helps local businesses and students grow through a facilitated learning process. Learning is made possible by appealing to the action orientation of entrepreneurs and supplying students with a real laboratory in which to implement, test and experience theory. Economic gardening effectively strengthens businesses in the community and promotes community awareness by bringing businesses, students, academics and community leaders together in a receptive and proactive environment. The authors draw on first-hand experience from programmes at various institutions and include in their discussion some preliminary results with regard to civic attitudes.