The revolution: A small company revived

Abstract

In the late 1970s, there was a recognition in the UK that there needed to be closer links forged between industry and academia to foster innovation in companies and improve the relevance of teaching in academia and thereby enhance the motivation of students. Using a somewhat flawed analogy, the resulting concept was that of a Teaching Company, in effect a response to the query, if doctors can be trained in a teaching hospital, why can't engineers be trained in a teaching company? A moment's thought around matters of urgent necessity and economics soon highlighted the limitations of the analogy! However, enough of the concept remained for the then Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) in the UK to begin to facilitate with increasingly substantial funding a system for industry-academic collaboration which has proved successful for more than three decades. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London.