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ABSTRACT. It is becoming increasingly difficult for universities in Nigeria to go it alone in terms of serving as a citadel of learning, coping with the huge wage bill and competing with their peers in other parts of the world, due to competitive, economic and other pressures. As a consequence, universities in Nigeria are left with no option than to carry their industrial partners along in terms of research and development through the formation of partnerships for their mutual benefit. Since th32278
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1. PROMOTING INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN NIGERIA.BYCHIEMEKE, S. C. & UKAOHA, K. C.DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF BENIN, BENIN CITY, NIGERIA.e-mail: ukaohakc@computer.org Second Science with Africa CONFERENCE
Science, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
23 25 June 2010 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2. ABSTRACT It is becoming increasingly difficult for universities in Nigeria to go it alone in terms of serving as a citadel of learning, coping with the huge wage bill and competing with their peers in other parts of the world, due to competitive, economic and other pressures. As a consequence, universities in Nigeria are left with no option than to carry their industrial partners along in terms of research and development through the formation of partnerships for their mutual benefit. Since the industries are established for profit making and the universities for knowledge enhancement, such partnerships would help in spreading the costs in terms of provision of knowledge and costs of research. This paper discusses the various types of partnerships involving industries and universities, the benefits derived and a possible model for the working of such a partnership which could be adapted to other sectors and countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
3. INTRODUCTION To create World-class leaders of the future; universities (Public and Private) in Nigeria and Africa need access to the following resources:
Personnel (Faculty and Support)
Infrastructure and Equipment
Training and Professional Development
Industry advisors and
Other technology-based needs that are expensive to acquire
4. INTRODUCTION contd.. In the current dispensation, universities are:
Experiencing low-funding below UNESCO-approved minimum
Budget constraints
Late release of allocations from Government
Increased staff overhead
These reasons makes it imperative for universities to look beyond the Government for funding
5. INTRODUCTION contd. The 4 main strands of activity that universities engage in where there is significant potential for developing partnerships with Corporate Nigeria (as the bigger industries are known in Nigeria ) are :-
Teaching and Learning
Research and Development
Innovation and Knowledge Transfer
Training and Retraining of students on Information Technology (IT) placements
6. INTRODUCTION contd..
7. ASSETS OF INDUSTRIES AND UNIVERSITIES Physical Assets/ Resources: laboratories, equipments and facilities
Human Resources: highly skilled and experienced staff
Other Knowledge Resources: information, database, libraries, processes, ideas, contacts, etc.
Financial Resources: own research funds or access to public funds.
8. TYPES OF INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS
9. TYPES OF INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS contd. Graduate Fellowships/ Studentships:
Sponsorships of studentship, fully/partial, offers industries a foothold into emerging IT areas
Student Projects and Placements:
Placement schemes like the Industrial Training scheme coordinated by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in Nigeria
Sponsored and Honorary Posts & Secondments:
Academic secondment to industries and honorary posts or secondments by Universities to specific industrial researchers
10. TYPES OF INDUSTRY-UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS contd.. University Consultancy & Associated Commercial Services:
Universities Academics devote part of their time to consultancy services for external customers
Clubs and Networks:
Clubs set up by a university or agency and Networks in form of research clubs
Jobs:
Securing jobs by IT graduates is also another area of partnership
11. FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING A UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP
13. FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING A UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP From our diagram, we showed that for a partnership to work effectively; it need inputs from:
The Government (provision of conducive political environment; tax laws/ rebates; appropriate regulations to meet up with National IT policy and cooperation)
Industries ( Interaction and exchanges with Universities; employment and training; Direct supervision/ implementation of IT projects, patents and funding and research)
Universities (Interaction and exchanges with Industries; Patents and Inventions; training; consultancies; research and development)
14. BENEFITS OF IT-RELATED PARTNERSHIPS Benefits for Industries
Thinking longer term by gaining an inside track on emerging trends and enabling technologies developed in universities
Benefiting from new ideas and past experience
Going global by linking up the global academic networks
Outsourcing through saving costs and letting universities handle research
Access to IT skills within universities that company staff lack
Accessing a range of IT disciplines at once in a university
Bringing additional financial resources to bear on research and thereby spreading costs
Reducing risk by sharing costs, finding out what others are doing
Complementing the companys physical resource base
Recruitment made easy
15. BENEFITS OF IT-RELATED PARTNERSHIPS Benefits for Universities
Improving market awareness by gaining insights into the research problems or interests to industries
Enriching teaching programs
Maintaining research momentum in the IT sector
Applying knowledge and skills to solving real business IT-related problems
Learning new IT skills and techniques developed in the industry
Learning new approaches to managing projects and how industry works
Drawing on a wider range of private funding and access to public funds requiring industry collaboration
Building on excellence and reputation
Complementing the universitys resource base
Sourcing job opportunities for IT graduates
16. THE WAY FORWARD.
17. THE WAY FORWARD. Industrial partners in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa should organize forums where they showcase newer technological acquisitions to students and staffs of Universities to keep them abreast and influence their research direction.
Government through her regulating agencies should from time to time encourage industry and University partners to develop their partnerships in line with her National IT policy
18. COST IMPLICATIONS?
19. CONCLUSION