Abstract:

In order to accomplish their vision, universities develop mission statements and identify primary and specific goals and objectives. One of constant primary strategic goals of universities is education, which facilitates acquirement of knowledge and skills relevant to a distinct contexts or needs of specific stakeholders (students, parents, government, industry, profession, public at large, etc.). University-industry collaboration plays a particularly important role in education, as it provides various benefits – both mutual ones and those limited to one side. Among benefits of cooperation for the university are: improved quality of educational programs, research collaboration, attraction of funding and better employment opportunities for students. Benefits for the industry include: better trained graduates, technology transfer, innovation to marketplace, solutions to industry problems, etc. Improved public image of both university and business entity may serve as an example of a mutual benefit.

The research problem identified in this paper is the lack of feedback between industry and universities in the development of students’ competences associated with study programs. Relevant literature on this topic was collected and analyzed. This paper exhibits the most common modes of cooperation between universities and the industry and identifies key factors for the success of such cooperation. The primary research goal is to determine activities of the curriculum development master process that would, with advanced cooperation, result in the improvement in individuals’ knowledge and skills that are necessary to the industry. The paper provides a detailed insight into activities of curriculum development, as well as into roles and tasks of individual actors in the process. Activities related to managing quality of educational process, where the representatives of the industry participate by evaluating study programs, and in this fashion contribute to achieving high values of quality indicators. Additionally, a section of the paper is dedicated to a case study in curriculum development in the field of business informatics that is taking place at the Faculty of Economics in Subotica, with significant involvement of the regional ICT cluster. Finally, the paper proposes possible strategies for establishing a sustainable university-industry relationship, particularly in curriculum development.

Keywords:

University-industry cooperation, curriculum development, redesign, process management.