Industry-academia partnership: Market relevant skills, industrial linkages stressed

Experts say construction, pharma expertise required

ISLAMABAD: Business schools should collaborate more to create global networks, develop human resource; and improve governance and quality of the programmes, participants of a conference agreed on Saturday.

The third Deans and Directors Conference, organised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) with the collaboration of National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBEAC) aimed to improve business schools through industry-academia partnerships and to make recommendations to enhance employability skills of business graduates.

Heads of 160 business institutes attended the conference from across the country along with representation from 15 business schools from countries such as USA, UK, Russia, and Malaysia. Many prominent industry experts also participated in the conference.

The two-day conference was divided into several sessions.

The three sessions held on the first day focused on strategic planning, the responsibilities of business schools, and motivating faculty respectively.

Speaking on strategic planning IBA Director, Dr Ishrat Hussain said that all stakeholders should be involved in the process and its implementation.



He also said that institutes should asses their impact on the society and subjects themselves to external evaluators.

Participants recommended that university education should be market oriented with focus on imparting technical skills, including IT skills to students. They also suggested that faculty in business universities should encourage critical thinking in students.

Sessions on the second day emphasised on industry’s expectations from business students and collaborations between academia and industry to address challenges in the corporate sector.

Participating business executives said that students struggle in the corporate sector due to the lack of knowledge about corporate code of conduct, weak reporting skills.

They also said that there was dearth of trained graduates in fields of construction, energy and pharmaceuticals.  They suggested that universities should provide mentors to students from the corporate sector and upgrade the placement centres to address these issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th,  2016.