The State of European University-Business Cooperation: Final Report-Study on the cooperation between Higher Education Institutions and public and private organisations in Europe

Abstract

This report presents the finding of a fifteen and a half month study on the cooperation between HEIs 1and public and private organisations in Europe. It was conducted by the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre, Germany (S2BMRC) for the DG Education and Culture at the European Commission (EC) during 2010 and 2011. The main components of the project were in-depth qualitative interviews with 10 recognised industry experts as well as a major quantitative survey. The survey was translated into 22 languages and sent to all registered European HEIs (numbering over 3,000) in 33 countries during March 2011. Through this, a final sample population of 6,280 academics and HEI representatives was achieved making the study the largest study into cooperation between HEIs and business yet completed in Europe. Further, 30 good practice UBC case studies have been created to provide positive examples of European UBC. Study objectives The key questions addressed in the study were: • how extensive is UBC in European HEIs?, • why do some academics and HEIs engage in UBC and not others?, • if situational factors are only part of the explanation for UBC activity, what else can help to explain total European UBC?