Using supply chain management to enhance industry—university collaborations in IT higher education in Korea

Abstract

Facing such serious problems in cultivating IT engineers as a mismatch in supply and demand of IT workers, shortage of globally competitive IT professionals, and insufficient education and training of university graduates, the Korean government has decided to adopt a new paradigm in national IT engineering education, based on supply chain management (SCM) in manufacturing. SCM weights improving competitiveness of the supply chain as a whole via a long-term commitment to supply chain relationships and a cooperative, integrated approach to business processes. These characteristics of SCM are believed to provide insight into a more effective IT education and industry-university relationship. On the basis of the SCM literature, a model for industry-oriented IT higher education is designed, and then applied in the field of computer-software engineering in Korea.