Abstract
Collaboration between universities, industries and other professional societies enables students to enter interdisciplinary learning environments through joint research. Stakeholders can attain their objectives through collaboration and a range of competitive advantages in own business sector. From an economic perspective, the fruits of research and development such as intelligent property are motivators for collaboration. From an educational perspective, this three party collaboration provides opportunities for situated learning that link theoretical studies with practical research work. This chapter discusses the contributions to the learning environment from collaboration between education, research and industry, and their impact on the professional growth of engineering graduates in the field of Material Science. Through self-reflection on experience, author argued that by combining theoretical knowledge from university education and research with practical skills and experience gained from the industry, students develop individual empowerment and bring future business advantages to the industries where they would later work.
TopIntroduction
The Purpose of Collaboration in Education
Most global businesses are highly competitive with companies striving for the positions of being the first, strongest, most innovative, most effective, fastest growing, most well-known, and highest valued. Although the fields of education, research, and industry may appear to have different aims, they are all participants and competitors in their own business sectors. Education, research and production industries can be regarded as separate elements on their own, but what happens if we put them together as building bricks? Can we use them to build competitive advantage in their respective sectors? How do we join forces and organize the individual parties?
This chapter discusses the contributions to the learning environment from collaboration between education, research and industry, and their impact on engineering students in the field of Material Science. Through interdisciplinary professional collaboration, it is possible to create a learning environment that combines academic education with practical operational understanding and experience that can only come from the industry. The distributed knowledge from such collaborations can contribute to creating and maintaining a common interdisciplinary professional community among the participants. The author argues here that by combining theoretical knowledge from university education and research with practical skills and experience gained from the industry, students can develop individual empowerment and bring future business advantages to the industries where they would later work.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Interdisciplinary Learning Environment: A situation where several professional bodies provide access to knowledge and experience within their individual professional area. Together, they are able to provide a range of perspectives of the same professional field.
Individual Professional Competence: It refers to knowledge based on personal abilities to achieve, develop and maintain experience, skills, and understanding using academic, practical, and interpersonal skills.
Empowerment: Enabling the acting of authority in a (professional) field of specific knowledge and skills.
Collaborative Contract: An agreement that describes framework, responsibilities, and contributions for participants working together on a defined activity or project.
Scientific Management: A system for surveying and planning the most efficient production through analysing operation activities and providing detailed instruction for work operational tasks.
Intellectual Property: Legally and exclusive rights and ownership to knowledge based values, both tangible and intangible such as research findings, results, discoveries, and inventions.
Stakeholder: An individual or organization with a legitimate interest in a specific activity or project.