Introducing EUI-Net: E uropean U niversity- I ndustry Net work to Develop and Promote

© 2006, Tod O’ Dot Productions

Introducing EUI-Net: European University-Industry Network to Develop and Promote the Entrepreneurship of Students in Technology and to Determine Best Practices of the Synergy between Teaching and Research

Herbert ten Thij,I.E.R.International Excellence Reserve,

Eindhoven, the Netherlands


EUI-Net

European University-Industry Network

The need for a fruitful collaboration between University and Industry is a necessity.


In the modern environment, enterprises need more than ever advanced knowledge which can be put immediately to practical use to meet market needs.


Therefore companies tend more and more, to look for university resources to supplement or substitute, rather than rely upon expensive in-house efforts.


At present, universities are under pressure to increase not only the knowledge flow and the technology transfer, but also the flow of people to and from industry.


Therefore higher education institutions are currently facing a deep restructuring process, especially during the last decade, as a result of the European integration.


The European integration, is also realised by creating an attractive Higher Education system in an efficient socio-economic area across Europe.


In this creation, given the importance of tradition in the university sector, a lack of flexibility in their organisational systems and in the content of its educational structure has been noted.


So, new mechanisms are required to secure the quality of educational research.



The major objectives of companies seeking cooperation with universities are:


• accessing complementary resources and skills, • achieving research synergies that will increase their productivity whilst keeping up with major technological developments.


The universities, reorienting their place in society, have also a great interest to intensify and to develop their connections with industry through research and the choice of research topics, as well as by integrating immediately the results of research into their teaching.


With the possibility of increased activity in the market place by a university – and in conjunction with industry cooperation, this will significantly increase profit!


EUI-Net


Therefore the need for a fruitful collaboration between University and Industry is a necessity.


EUI-Net is also a project supported by the European Commission as an ERASMUS Thematic Network.


EUI-Net is a European Network which unites and coordinates European effort towards a better cooperation between universities and industry.



EUI-Net disseminates cooperation models and promotes best practice collaboration at a European level. New approaches in generic and specific competences in Engineering and other Industrial qualifications will be initiated and also the quality assurance of teaching / learning- assessment processes, especially with regard to its relations within research and innovation, will be strengthened.



EUI-Net disseminates cooperation models and promotes best practice collaboration at a European level. New approaches in generic and specific competences in Engineering and other Industrial qualifications will be initiated and also the quality assurance of teaching / learning- assessment processes, especially with regard to its relations within research and innovation, will be strengthened.



EUI-Net will approach the development of university / industry links in a systematic manner addressing all levels of cooperation in a coherent and integrated framework.

Target groups of the network and the project are graduates, students and learners in European universities of technology, academic and research staff in European higher education institutions, university leadership, university stakeholders, and professional staff from industrial companies, managers and policy makers.



The EUI-Net partnership is clustered around five strategic issues, showing the important segments of cooperation areas. These clusters are meant also to group the ongoing cooperation projects in the respective areas in order to facilitate sharing of experience, cooperation on pieces of work, carrying out joint events, coordinating dissemination activities, etc. Thus adding value to the work of current running projects.



Therefore, to achieve the objectives of the project, EUI-Net has created five Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) according to these clusters and they are as follows:



SIG1. Generic and specific competences in the subjects relevant to all industrial sectors, using the “Tuning” methodology; SIG2. Generic and specific competences for practical stages of students as key component of the curricula in relation with the Industrial sector;SIG3. Synergies between teaching and research in the frame of University / Industry cooperation, to facilitate the integration of the results of research in teaching and for a better training of future specialists and researchers;



SIG4. European Innovation Capacity, Research and Technological Transfer using University / Industry cooperation;SIG5. Professional insertion – a key issue for the cooperation between University/ Industry as main indicator for learning outcomes and Competences. At the same time, the cluster is built alongside the Special Interest Groups and are seen to become long-term relationships in the respective areas by accompanying the current and future projects throughout their duration.



As the network will bring together universities, industrial partners, research institutes and professional associations from all European countries and set up a common framework for cooperation, it will blur existing boundaries defining and building an European dimension in the following fields:



• Teaching in fields relevant for the industrial sector – by offering the reference points and adapting the curricula to the industrial needs at a European level using the “Tuning” methodology;



• Practical stages of students that will be thoroughly analysed and re- engineered in terms of objectives, structure, content and framework as a key part of the curriculum at European level. The network will also undertake the development of an European credit system for the student practical experience in enterprises and by the activities for the development of a system of European recognition of practical placements and studies in enterprises;



• Research by mediating University and Industry direct research cooperation as well as creating University / Industry consortiums to stimulate participation in the creation of the European Research Area and create synergy in participation in the research framework programme of the European Commission. This will permit the identification of the appropriate ways to integrate the research results into teaching for better training of specialists and researchers.



University / industry cooperation in Europe will be promoted at three different levels:

first - on a project basis as collaborative partners;second - between individual academics (or groups of academics) and industrial partners;third - around specific professional issues of common interest.



The third level of cooperation is the most recent form of cooperation and is characterized by structured institutional arrangements and the emergence of new patterns of academia-business interaction.



A significant feature of this third level of cooperation is that, while it attenuates the boundaries between universities and industry, it also takes away the boundaries between teaching, research and consulting activities, creating an interdependent organisational environment. This level of COOPERATION is more than simply university and industry cooperation, it represents a shift toward collaboration within integrated knowledge systems.



Join us now for a prosperous future for you and Europe.

web site: www.eui-net.org

e-contact: [email protected] or slache @unitbv.ro THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !


Herbert ten Thij,I.E.R.International Excellence Reserve,

Eindhoven, the Netherlands

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Introducing EUI-Net: E uropean U niversity- I ndustry Net work to Develop and Promote