Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Education approach in Higher Education: The scope of university-industry collaboration in Pakistan
Many studies have addressed the topic of Higher Education in Pakistan and examined it through different lenses; its historical context, challenges, policies and future recommendations but not much work has been done on the area and scope of university-industry collaboration in Pakistan. Is it because there are not enough collaborative opportunities for students and organisations in Pakistan or is it because they are not being documented and promoted? The goal of this literature review is to find out the significance of university industry collaboration, how successfully it has been implemented globally via examples, where does Pakistan stand in this approach and the potential suggestions for the incorporation of this model in our higher education system. We are living in the times where the promotion of more public-private partnerships can help create cooperation between universities thus working towards the goal of producing high quality research that further allows us to excel in industry-led innovations (UNESCO, 2015).
The interaction between any aspect of the higher educational system and industry with the purpose to foster knowledge and technology exchange is known as University-Industry collaboration (Ankrah and Al-Tabbaa, 2015). From an academic point of view, not only does University-Industry (U-I) collaboration helps in the knowledge transfer between the universities and industries but it also helps in improving the quality of academia provided to the students (Garcia et al., 2020 as cited in Malik, Bashir and Ali 2021).
Significance of University-Industry collaboration in the Global Context
From an economic point of view, these kinds of collaborations help attract private investments in Research and Development (R&D) projects, which ultimately create new knowledge in the economy which leads to the creation of employment opportunities, beneficial for both fresh graduates applying their knowledge in the process of delivering products and services as well as industries allowing them to work in collaboration with them.
To further explain the need of this collaboration, Steingraber and Gonçalves (2017) elaborate that firms require innovative capabilities in order to keep moving higher but most of the time they lack these innovative compatibilities that are needed for innovation. On the other hand, students possess these innovative capabilities because research is an integral component in the curriculum of most undergraduate and graduate studies, but these students are not always working towards developing new products and services. Hence, it is an excellent proposition to create a platform that brings both industries/firms and students together to create something extra-ordinary.
Examples from other countries such as the creation of science and technology parks in Spain bringing in both the stakeholders i.e., the university and industry in this case at one place to work efficiently. In Thailand, government introduced a talent mobility program that allows university researchers to witness the environment of industry in real time for a deeper understanding between the two. By looking at these models working successfully in other countries, one can make a strong case for its advocacy in Pakistan.
University-Industry collaboration in the Pakistani context
For the first time in 2012, Pakistan was finally able to formulate its first Science, Innovation and Technology policy. This clearly suggests that the progress that Pakistan is making as a country in the field of science, technology and society is still very little. It is shocking that this is the first time in the history of Pakistan that the Pakistani government put an emphasis “innovation” for contributing towards the economy. However, it is important to note here that the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has rendered full support towards the introduction of Business Incubation Centers (BICs) in Pakistan.
These BICs are responsible for providing the researchers and young entrepreneurs with basic infrastructure and allied facilities so that they can learn how to develop early-stage business ventures (Higher Education Commission, 2017 as cited in Malik, Bashir and Ali, 2021). There were only 20 BICs established at public sector universities in Pakistan till the year 2017 but as of today, in year 2021, there are 29 established BICs. It can be observed that there has been a rapid increase in the number of BICs over the course of four years which suggests that there is a lot of potential and scope of BICs in Pakistan.
If one examines closely, the reason universities are more inclined towards pursuing an interdisciplinary or a multidisciplinary approach and working on technological advancement is to contribute towards human capital development (Steingraber and Gonçalves, 2017). However, the pre-requisite of such business and technology-oriented research centers is research produced in the university (Steingraber and Gonçalves, 2017). This puts a heavy emphasis on considering research as the driving for innovation in universities.
Malik, Bashir and Ali (2021) further elaborate on the landscape of university-industry collaboration in Pakistan, which appears to be still not fully developed or recognized especially because private sector has not considered investing in it. Another main reason that justifies this lack of university-industry collaboration is the little to no development in new products and services. Moreover, the universities also do not produce quality research which naturally minimize the chances of creating a space for innovation and collaboration of different fields. Yet there exist demands for the creation of more of these business and industrial centers in each of the province of Pakistan in hope for more collaboration (Malik, Bashir and Ali, 2020). So, Pakistan is facing a dilemma because at one side, it is establishing these Business Incubation Centers (BICs) which sound promising but on the other hand, there are some limitations which might interrupt this already slowed progress, which is the absence of quality research produced in Pakistani universities.
