Industry and Higher Education Integration

Abstract

<jats:p> The relationship between professional bodies and higher education (HE) institutes was studied, with particular attention to the roles of each in producing future generations of fully qualified, competent practitioners. The authors examined new and evolving challenges facing consulting quantity surveyors (CQSs) and discuss the complex interactions between these challenges. The analysis is largely based on a synthesis of the literature augmented by the authors' experiences and continuing involvement in the field. The findings reveal a number of challenges relating to the contemporary knowledge and skills demands of CQS and the mechanisms by which these assets are transferred to them. Accordingly, the authors signpost future industry–HE integration in a CQS context. The study is relevant to academics and practitioners alike in its aim to engender wider and constructive debate in the field. Further research is suggested, to include a broader examination of the effectiveness of industry and HE relationships beyond the single profession investigated here. </jats:p>

Understanding the key competencies of market-ready building surveying graduates from employers’ perspectives

“…Statistics from Hoxley (2012) shows that in 2004, graduate building surveyors who held industry experience, industrial placement or voluntary work, had a 65% greater chance of attaining a graduate scheme than their peers. There appears to be an underlying issue that incompetent professionals and half-baked graduates could partly be blamed on inadequate collaboration between universities and employers, which prevents students from having adequate practical knowledge and placement opportunities (Owusu-Manu et al , 2014). Accordingly, it is essential that further studies introduce a competency framework, aiming to provide a comprehensive breakdown of competencies that will benefit the universities and employers, allowing graduates to be sufficiently competent once graduated.…”

“…This was implemented to produce more competent graduates, but according to Wilkinson and Hoxley (2005), the policy did not yield significant outcome as recruitment remained static. One core reasoning for this could be explained by the findings of Owusu-Manu et al (2014) which suggest that there has been an inadequate collaborative effort between universities, professional accreditation bodies and employers. This suggests the need for employers' input, especially as the collaboration between the professional bodies and the universities is improving within the built environment (Harty and Leiringer, 2017).…”

“…Recruitment of graduate building surveyors has proved to be a challenging task for most of the surveying firms. The complexity of this issue is in part because of graduate building surveyors not meeting the satisfactory competency level desired by the employers (Wilkinson and Hoxley, 2005) and also an inadequate synergy between the industry and higher education (Owusu-Manu et al , 2014). A study by Yogeshwaran et al (2018) suggests that surveying education does not appear to be producing graduates fulfilling the expected standards.…”

Preparing Indonesian civil engineering graduates for the world of work

“…While academic institutions have their ways of setting the competency levels expected of their graduates and tailor teaching activities to inculcate those competencies in the students, academic experience often fails to provide the right skillsets for graduates (Zaheer et al, 2020). Owusu-Manu et al (2014) suggest that inadequate collaboration between universities, employers and professional accreditation bodies is to blame. This is especially the case as most construction companies have set their own criteria for employment assessment, which are harmonised with their expectations when recruiting civil engineering graduates.…”

Exploring the reform of live e-commerce talent training based on the four-way collaboration of “government, industry, enterprise and school”

“…The integration of industry and education is a holistic system composed of schools and enterprises as the main stakeholders and government, industry, and families as the indirect stakeholders and the synergy between schools and enterprises is the basis for the benign operation of this system [14]. Literature [15] integrates industry and higher education and argues that the rights, responsibilities, and benefits of consulting quantity surveyors (CQSs) are not clearly defined in the process of schoolenterprise cooperation. The process of student training involves an unclear delineation of responsibilities and duties, distribution of benefits, and attribution of research projects between the university and the enterprise.…”