Several years ago, I met the rector of a university in a large city, and she confessed to me that she had very few connections with the economic sectors of the city. I replied that it was necessary to develop a strategic plan of at least five years to achieve the desired results. She told me that her term would end in two years… I suspect she was hoping I would offer her a ‘magic wand.’

For a university, the benefits are as follows when establishing industrial partnership:

– facilitating employment for young graduates and internships in companies;

– inviting professionals who can share their experience with students;

– organizing regular meetings where laboratories present their findings to local industries, for example, once a year;

– encouraging faculty and researchers to work with companies as consultants and even to undertake stays of several months there;

– offering continuing education modules for company employees; – facilitating accommodation for startups;

–  promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity;

– etc.

Not only is it possible to work with large companies, but also with small ones that have a long-term vision.

To achieve such objectives, the phases are as follows, considering that many companies do not expect much from universities and even have concerns about collaborating with them:

– meet with the heads of chambers of commerce and industry to determine common strengths and the most promising areas of collaboration;

– rely on alumni and locate those who have responsibilities and propose partnerships;

– ask companies to sponsor certain promotions;

– invite companies that may be interested to prepare capstone projects; one solution is to organize a competition whose only judges will be industrialists;

– appoint several industrialists to the governing bodies of the university; let us remember that, in some engineering schools, half of the board members are personalities from the economic sphere;

– etc.

On this last point, I was once told that the law concerning local universities limited the number of external personalities. To alleviate this difficulty, a development council could always be created to evaluate the suitability of certain educational and even research programs to local economic needs. Eventually, such structures could also be created at the faculty level. For example, I knew about a computer science faculty whose development council is composed of one third of individuals from large IT companies, one second third from small software houses, and the last third from large users. In contrast, a school of architecture only had one professional on its board, who resigned due to a lack of listening and feeling used as a mere pretext. A good balance must be found.

However, some relationships can be fragile. In fact, it only takes a change in strategies from the industrial partner, the departure of a very favorable manager, or even a blunder from a student to destroy an association. And everything has to start over!

To conclude this text, it is essential for universities to develop outreach strategies with industries and economic sectors, not only for the benefit of higher education institutions but also for companies, and consequently for the region. And it is the quality of these relationships and partnerships that will allow for the creation of a mutually beneficial ecosystem. USF can help you. Contact us.