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The large research projects conducted by university scientists and industry working together often draw headlines, but in reality partnerships are being forged every day thanks to programs now embedded in undergraduate and postgraduate university science courses.
For almost 10 years, Work Integrated Learning (WIL) has been an agreed priority for Australian governments, industry groups and universities seeking to improve graduate employability.
What began as placement of students into workplaces has evolved into true collaboration between industry and the scientists of the future. Industry PhDs, curriculum co-design, and industry based research training have also helped organisations and researchers cultivate the expertise and innovation capability to become industry leaders.
Deakin Distinguished Professor Liz Johnson leads the university’s education and employability strategy and has also worked with the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS) to champion WIL in science. She says the advent of compulsory WIL for many university science students has helped foster longer-term university-industry collaboration, at a variety of different commitment levels.
“You end up with this longitudinal relationship, which then complements other sorts of relationships that the industry partner might have with the university, whether it’s around teaching or graduate recruitment,” Johnson says.
“A startup, for example, probably can’t take on an intern straight away, but they might want to come in and be part of a judging panel or give a talk to students,” Johnson adds. And, she says, given many university science graduates go on to work not as traditional scientists, but directly in industry roles, WIL is a real opportunity for science schools to “make better industry”.
“Because it’s a three-way partnership. It’s the student, the institution and the industry partner, and you have to have all three of them working tightly together.”
Australian National University (ANU) Professor and Director of the ACDS Teaching & Learning Centre Susan Howitt agrees once industry and university science partners take the first step with WIL, it then opens up other opportunities. “I think once you’ve established that connection, then it’s easier to think about other options or other ways that we can work together.”
The more recent development of Industrial Transformation Training Centres supports university science graduates to partner with industry in priority areas for Australia. And degree apprenticeships are now on the horizon.
“Industry is asking for students that have a wide range of capacities: can they apply the science that they’re doing? Do they have the resilience and persistence to be able to deal with open-ended problems and really complex problem solving, for example,”says Dr Bonnie McBain, WIL leader and senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle.
“So if you take it back to the basics of what you are preparing students for, then you see that WIL can take many forms.” This increasingly includes industry projects where students work in teams across disciplines to solve complex or “wicked” problems for industry partners, McBain says.
“We have a full range of partners from individual contractors who are running their own business to larger organisations. So the model we have tends to be really flexible… and the commitment from the industry partner doesn’t have to be very big.”
Written by Charis Palmer