universityâenterprise cooperation
universityâenterprise cooperation
universityâenterprise cooperation
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3.1 EU legislation, policies and<br />
strategies<br />
3.1.1. Introduction<br />
The presence and role of European<br />
universities is very important in multiple<br />
directions: higher education, advanced<br />
research and technological innovation.<br />
Such role has increased its relevance<br />
in particular in the last 40 years, with<br />
universities and higher education becoming<br />
accessible to exponentially increased<br />
numbers of people and rising up to the actual<br />
situation: about 4000 institutions, with<br />
about 435.000 researchers and attended by<br />
over 17 millions students. As a consequence,<br />
this relatively fast modification in higher<br />
education scenario has forced university to<br />
modify priorities, research, and, eventually,<br />
its role in society. European university has<br />
then the potential to play the key role as<br />
leading force in knowledge, technological<br />
progress and, ultimately, of economy, but<br />
up to now, such potential still has not been<br />
sufficiently exploited.<br />
Over the same period, also labour markets<br />
have undergone relevant modifications,<br />
moving from industry to services and<br />
from production to research, design<br />
and development. New economical and<br />
production markets have then strongly<br />
influenced higher education, calling for the<br />
need for new competences and profiles.<br />
3.1.2. Knowledge Triangle<br />
An important snap-shot on present situation<br />
has been reported at the recent “EU Forum<br />
for University Business Dialogue” [2]:<br />
“Universities, with their triple roles as<br />
providers of the highest levels of education,<br />
advanced research and path-breaking<br />
innovation, are at the heart of Europe’s<br />
knowledge triangle. They have the potential to<br />
be crucial drivers of Europe’s ambition to be the<br />
world’s leading knowledge-based economy and<br />
society.”<br />
In the field of <strong>cooperation</strong> between<br />
universities and enterprises, the productive<br />
interaction of the major stakeholder groups,<br />
depends on full awareness of each interest<br />
group and the main stakeholders:<br />
a) Higher Education Institutions;<br />
b) Enterprises;<br />
c) The European Commission.<br />
To exploit its potential, university then need<br />
to reinvent and strengthen its position, in<br />
particular with regard to its relationship<br />
with industry:<br />
• Tuning studies and academic education<br />
according to labour markets;<br />
• Feeding local economies with industry<br />
oriented research;<br />
• Define industrial collaborations to find<br />
private partners as alternative means of<br />
founding.<br />
Throughout Europe and EU programs, exists<br />
successful <strong>cooperation</strong> between these three<br />
sides, but the problem lies in the level of<br />
<strong>cooperation</strong> that remains very unequal<br />
across countries, universities and academic<br />
disciplines.<br />
3.1.3. Policies and Strategies<br />
This need for modernization of universities<br />
has been clearly stressed at a political level<br />
by the European Council. Some milestones<br />
can be recognized:<br />
EU’s Lisbon strategy - an important part<br />
of this strategy are Policies for Education<br />
and Training form. This important issue was<br />
asked from Heads of States and Government,<br />
when they asked for more then just a radical<br />
transformation of the European economy, but<br />
they wanted also a challenging program for<br />
modernization of education systems.<br />
To achieve these objectives and demands,<br />
Ministers for Education adopted common<br />
objectives for the improvement of education<br />
and training systems and a work program.<br />
This program was known as the Education &<br />
21<br />
State of the art in the area of university-enterprise <strong>cooperation</strong> - EU level 3