THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY FOR ENHANCING EMPLOYABILITY AND FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

The aim of this paper is to share an academia-industry collaboration experience at a Soil and Water Engineering (SWE) Program, the Department of Agricultural Engineering (AE), Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), Thailand. The program has been launched since 2003. The program committee has a high ambition to popularize this program for relevant Thai agricultural-based industries. In 2015, the program name was changed to Irrigation Engineering and Water Management (IRE). The department has adopted the CDIO framework, especially CDIO standard 3, 5, 7, 9 as a strategic plan for creating collaboration with the industry.

A system of academia-industry collaboration at SWE and IRE has 5 steps. The first step is a university visit. The department invites managers/key persons from companies as guest lecturers, invited speakers and project co-advisors. The second step is to send SWE and IRE students for an industry internship at those companies. The university offers a 2-month on-the-job training (OJT) and a 4-month co-operative education (Co-op) courses for all students. The third step is an industry visit by the faculty member while the students are having their internship. This visit allows the faculty members to share their expertise with real-life problems the industry is facing. The fourth step is an industry-based co-research where the faculty members work closely with the industry to solve specific problems, form a research group, enhance professional skills, and transfer real-world experience to students. The fifth step is to co-create curriculum development for SWE and IRE to better educate future engineers entering the industry.

The result of this collaboration enhances student employability after graduation. Most of them receive job offers from those companies immediately. From 2012-2017, 52 students had cooperative education in 6 companies, and 17 of them (32.70%) were recruited. Moreover, academia-university collaboration has enhanced the faculty professional development regarding the knowledge and skills required to work successfully in the industry. In addition, the collaboration also reveals the knowledge and skills that graduates should have that resulting in revising curriculum supporting the industry’s needs.