Educational involvement in innovative university–industry collaboration

Abstract

The positive link between university research and industrial innovation has been widely recognized among academics and industrial practitioners. A remarkable volume of previous research emphasizes the importance of the transfer of academic knowledge into the industrial domain. In this sense, it is surprising that the role of university education is an almost neglected topic in the research concerning university–industry collaboration, despite education and the creation of knowledge being a primary goal of universities and providing great potential in terms of improving competences. This study presents a case study that analyzes educational involvement in nine long-term university–industry relationships. In all the cases, the research collaboration between industrial firm and university research group is directly associated with close educational involvement. The aim of the case analysis is to understand mechanisms and practices of educational collaboration that facilitate relational learning and innovation development in university–industry relationships. The forms of educational involvement studied in this article include student projects, thesis projects, jointly organized courses, and tailored degree courses. The findings of the study reveal a number of educational collaboration practices that may facilitate relational learning, creation of new knowledge, as well as innovation development in university–industry relationships.