Ivory Tower or Collaborative Innovation Platform? – Comparing MSc Theses in Engineering and Business Education

The economic and social impact from university-industry collaboration activities depend on its incidence. Based on a survey of MSc theses at two faculties, i.e., the engineering and business faculty, a survey to collaborating firms and an interview study of study directors we have showed that the incidence of university-industry educational collaboration activities in terms of collaborative MSc thesis projects is high for the engineering faculty (64%) but low for the business faculty (6%). The study shows that collaborating firms and public organizations benefit mostly from the educational collaborative projects in terms of recruiting students and knowledge transfer, mainly screening and scoping new technologies and ideas. The difference in incidence of university-industry educational collaborative activities between the two faculties is related to the formal aim of the MSc thesis, research oriented or work life oriented, the character of the departmental research, basic or applied research orientation, and the extent to which the department offers facilitation services for students to find a collaboration partner. We conclude that teachers and students at the engineering faculty tend to see MSc thesis projects as a platform for collaboration with firms and organizations to facilitate students’ transfer to work life, learning professional skills as well as transfer of innovative knowledge to industry. The teachers and students at the business faculty tend to see MSc thesis projects as part of the students’ education of learning research skills with limited contact and interaction with industry, i.e., holding an ivory tower attitude towards external contacts and impact on the society.