Abstract
University-industry collaboration (UIC) is increasingly seen as an important driver of economic growth, but knowledge on its implementation mechanisms is still limited especially in developing countries. This constrains the capacity of those countries to design adequate policies and strategies to foster such interactions. This paper provides information about the extent to which academic staff from Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) in Rwanda interact with industry. It identifies the factors underlying their propensity to engage in interactions and the barriers or challenges faced. Data were collected from 334 academic staff permanently employed by 17 Higher Education Institutions in Rwanda. Results indicate a low level of interaction except in some informal channels arguably less inclined to foster relational learning and knowledge creation. Regression analyses indicated that the type of institution and the academic grades are significantly associated with the propensity of academic staff to interact with industry. In addition, four main barriers to interaction are identified and they are all linked to poor support from the government and the universities. Therefore, the study recommends the elaboration of explicit policies and strategies at country and institutional levels to set the stage for such indispensable interactions.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers around the globe
More spe cifically, this paper provides information about the extent to which ac ademic staff from Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) in Rwanda interact with industry, identifies the factors underlying their propensity to engage in interactions and the barriers or challenges faced
This study aims to enhance our understanding of the extent to which academic staff from TEIs in Rwanda interacts with industry
Summary
Over the past few decades, University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers around the globe. The topics often covered include individual behaviors and incentives towards UIC (Banal-Estanol et al, 2018; Filippetti and Savona, 2017; Arza & Carattoli, 2016; Lam, 2011; Jain et al, 2009), best practices and challenges facing the imple mentation of UIC in a specific industry (for example Garousi et al, 2016) or country (for example Faisal et al, 2017) as well as other process-oriented topics such as determinants of UIC, indicators for measuring UIC, boundary spanning, trust formation, UIC sustainability, spinoff creation processes, and technology transfer mechanisms. Three different forms of UIC, namely research collaboration, educational collaboration, and academic entrepreneurship can be distinguished. It can be noted from the surveyed literature that most studies on UIC focus on research collaboration
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