University collaboration with business in curriculum development

Abstract

The relevance of the research is that university and business collaboration is the main implementation tool of the third university mission. University-business collaboration (UBC) has risen to one of the top priorities for many higher education institutions, with its importance mirroring attention from scholars and policy makers worldwide. In the face of increasing global competition, business was challenged to seek new methods for creating their competitive advantage and at the same time, the decreasing budgets of higher education institutions were pressured to find new streams of financing. In both cases, collaboration in different forms is an important method for achieving their objectives. Ten types of UBC are related quite directly to the missions of the university and the needs of business but one of them curriculum development and delivery is very important. Using this form for UBC, could help to develop human resources relevant to modern society. The main instruments and activities in this form of collaboration as identified by business is too little used. The research aim was to identify the activities of university and leisure organizations used for collaboration in curriculum development. The objectives of the research: to determine the forms of UBC, to identify the activities used for universities and leisure organizations collaboration in curriculum development. Analysis of recent research and publications. UBC became the subject of education and management sciences. Recently, much attention has been paid to UBC collaboration practices (M. Ilyas, G. Dutrenit, D. Golder-Buckley, V. Garousi, K. Petersen) especially a lot of research on practices was done about universities collaboration in R&D and commercialisation of R&D. P. D'Este and M. Perkmann explored the factors of UBC, the types were identified by T. Davey, T. Baaken, V. Galan Muros, A. Meerman, T. Barnes, A. Gibbons and the levels of UBC were represented by B.N. Ponomariov, P.C. Boardman, T. Davey. The benefits of UBC to research quality have been studied by researchers M. Crespo and H. Dridi, as a collaborative factor for learning improvement by researchers K. Ramakrishnan, N.M. Yasin, A. Draghici, as a quality factor UBC was analysed by M. Perkmann, Z. King, S. Pavelin. The main researchers who analysed the UBC in curriculum development was the T. Davey, A. Healy, C. Plewa, T. Baaken. An overview of the study of this object shows that it was mostly analysed in vocational training and in last ten years’ period the publications is growing in UBC. Research methodology. The paper seeks to represent the collaboration forms, which was used by university with the business organizations from leisure industry. As well, it seeks to identify the activities of business collaboration in curriculum design, development and evaluation. Methods applied for the research was scientific literature review, a questionnaire survey for business organization leaders and mathematical statistics. Conclusion. The results of business organizations show the positive impact for increasing the university collaboration as a hole but in study programs, curriculum development shows that it is needed more business engagement. With the business engagement into curriculum academics, expect to be given the opportunity to transfer theoretical ideas into practical projects and to implement research in the real world. At the same time, the business engage in the curriculum development mostly through giving guest’s lectures and consultations, place for practice, or organizing the different events with the academics