IT STUDIES AND IT INDUSTRY – A CASE STUDY

In the recent years the rapid development of IT industry in Poland has been accelerating. The number of firms has increased. It resulted in bigger variety of demands in the employees’ skills range. Each firm uses a different set of technologies and tools. It is impossible to train a “universal” student who will be well prepared to work in all IT firms. It became necessary to vary studies’ programs to adjust them to various demands. It made universities interested in cooperation with firms. Also the firms started to be interested in influencing a studies schedule.

In the article, the case of creating the master course IT studies at Lublin University of Technology is presented. The cooperation with firms and their influence on studies schedule is discussed.

As a result of cooperation with industry the master level IT studies were created. Nine various specializations were started.

Cooperation with industry in the new studies creation has brought some success. Students and graduates of computer science at Lublin University of Technology are in high demand in labor market. This fact is proven by a big number of working students. About 60 percent of second semester students work in IT firms as IT specialists during their studies. Most of them are computer programmers.

The obtained results and problems encountered during the cooperation with IT industry in the process of the master level IT studies creation are shown in the article.