The hallmark of a knowledge economy is the strong industry-academia linkage that has shared vision for research, innovation and workforce development. The multiple options to initiate, strengthen and sustain industry-academia partnerships is one of the biggest challenges. Many higher education institutions (HEIs) are wanting to engage intensely with industry unaware of their limitations, while many industry players collaborate with only a few HEIs due to lack of proper match. This imbalance in this critical dimension of higher education needs a thorough analysis to understand ground realities, mitigate challenges and reinforce the partnership through multi-modal arrangements between industry and academia with government agencies being the progressive facilitator. The need to enrich knowledge-based capital, both for industry competitiveness and to address socio-economic challenges, benefits those universities and industries with genuine intent to forge partnership for a sustainable co-existence resulting in a win-win for both.
The policy stress on Industry-Academia Collaboration is tellingly visible through various inter-ministerial schemes that lay emphasis on the need to promote a sense of cooperation between these two important stakeholders of a knowledge economy. The Research Fellowship, Sector Skills Council, National Apprenticeship Scheme and other schemes of UGC, AICTE, etc. like Professor of Practice, Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme, NCVET recognitions, etc. are aligned with the central objective to get industry and academia together on multiple pathways based on each other’s strengths and expertise.
Leading institutions like the IITs, IIMs, CFTIs and certain progressive private HEIs have a functional mechanism to promote industry partnership in different ways—research, entrepreneurship and innovation, capacity building, faculty development, continuing education, etc. This has proven to be mutually beneficial resulting in successful outcomes—joint publications, incubation and startups, workforce development, industry talent development, etc. However, there are challenges in scaling due to lack of coherent synergy and disinterest in widespread adoption.
The union of a profit-making industry and a not-for-profit HEI ecosystem is always surrounded by challenges emerging from various sources driven by factors that are universal. The differing nature of core objectives and goals can create barriers between academia and industry to form a shared vision on which growth pillars can be constructed. A framework to develop mutual trust and respect each other’s priorities giving space for both to advance their core ideals should be the appetising starter. The main course lies in the variety and quality of expertise that both partners bring to the board. When it comes to quality and competence, deceiving branding should take a back seat as there is good and bad in both public and private enterprises and HEIs. The choice of the menu must be on the credibility of the chefs and not the flashy aura. Issues regarding intellectual property (IP) and the role of institutional and individual resources in creating different forms of IP must be rightly recognised and rewarded. This shall be a good cherry on the top. Adequate tax incentives and waivers to promote a multi-dimensional interface shall serve a perfect dessert for a sumptuous meal to be served for this unique marriage between industry and academia. Communication distortion due to leadership and governance vulnerabilities are some of the spicy, peppy, salty, items when present in more or less quantities make the meal less savoury, leading to divorce.
There is hence a compelling need for industry and academia to respect each other’s goals and expectations to build a symbiotic environment that values mutual respect and trust. Joint projects and initiatives to promote new knowledge, build skill capital, promote innovation, increase societal wellness, etc. involves the getting together of diverse partners and not just the usual suspects. There is a need to traverse beyond the conventional partnership orbit and include new players to create a broader partnership framework with different types of HEIs and industry to create different outputs to avoid stereotypes that are either marginally best or spectacularly worst. Current models of industry-academia engagement are ‘elitist’ in the real sense with certain contrarian outliers. It requires grounded foot soldering than intellectual paratrooping if the marriage between industry and academia needs to last long requiring a win for both sides. Not, heads I win and tails you lose!
