Abstract:

Universities need to constantly accommodate new forms of collaboration with society. Interaction with and impacts on industry and public organization are of crucial importance. University West in Sweden has a profile area in work-integrated learning (WIL), which generally aims to address issues on integrating theory and practice in a coherent and sustainable way. In this paper we base our arguments on WIL as both a form and a content in a research education (3rd cycle) in informatics with specialization in work-integrated learning. We further develop the model known in Gellerstedt, Pareto & Svensson (2015), which manage all the learning outcomes for students undergoing higher education on third level. Also inspiration from Informing science (Gill et al 2016) has supported our aim. Drawing from a survey of how the research education relates to certain collaboration activities with society outside academia we aim to develop a collaboration model that can be used as a mean to visualize and manage such collaboration activities strategically in the University. During the survey we applied in-depth analysis of document archives, both external regulations and national policies for research, and internal research education curriculum and doctoral students project descriptions. Interview and workshops with collaboration partners as well as internal research fellows responsible for the research education were further conducted. The model we present shows a map of identified collaboration activities along with the degree of strength (impact factor) on how much we strategically align to the respective activity today, as a form of detailed zero-state analysis. We discuss the model as a strategic tool to be used for enhancing work-integrated learning in research education.

References:
[1] Gellerstedt M., Pareto L., Svensson L. (2015) The Goalkeeper - A Tool For Monitoring Learning Outcomes In Ph.D. Education, in ICERI2015 Proceedings, University West (SWEDEN).
[2] Gill, T. G., Mullarkey, M., Mohr, J. E., & Limayem, M. (2016). Building an informing business school: A case study of USF’s Muma College of Business. Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdisci-pline, 19, 1-73.

Keywords:

Work-integrated learning, collaboration model, learning outcome, higher education.