Planned university reform seeks to improve cooperation with industry
Czech universities are set for the biggest change in years. After several failed attempts in the past, the Education Ministry is finalizing reform legislation that should help universities adapt to the changing environment; the reform seeks, among other things, to diversify the universities and change their financing. It should also improve cooperation between universities and industry. But how does the business sector see the ministry’s efforts? In this edition of Marketplace, I discuss these issues with Jan Louda, a university relations coordinator at IBM for Czech Republic.
“This is the concept of competence centres which include various innovative areas. On one hand, they are built on business potential as indentified by IBM which enables us to ensure long-term financial sustainability of the centres. On the other hand, these are areas that are also interesting for the universities as well.
“For example, one such competence centre for smarter commerce works at Prague’s University of Economics where they have a strong drive on social networks, or social business as it known nowadays. The students there work on real projects which are very important for them as they get practical experience. The university can also get feedback on their research and how it’s adequate for in the industry.”
As far as I understand, IBM’s Czech branch specializes in speech recognition research. Do you work with Czech universities on this programme, too?
“Yes, we do. These research activities are done in cooperation between IBM research division, the Watson Lab, which resides at IBM Czech Republic in Prague, and IBM software group. But it’s not only about voice recognition; it’s about voice recognition in special solutions. For example, we have such solutions the financial sector.
“So this is something special which is taking place across our divisions together with the University of West Bohemia, for instance, where they have a very good language processing programmes.”
“That’s a difficult one because it’s always about people. What we are trying to do is to pinpoint the leaders, the people at universities who are open to collaboration with industry. We either indentify them via students and other contacts we have; sometimes we use platforms for industrial cooperation which are available at universities. But it’s all about finding people with a pro-active approach to cooperation because you can’t have one-way cooperation.”
Do you find Czech universities ready for such projects?
“It’s hard to give a general answer here. As I said, it’s about individual people who are at different universities. We cooperate with Czech Technical University in Prague, with the University of Economics, West Bohemia University as well as universities in Brno. If I look at the university itself, we usually have a memorandum of understanding on the highest level which provides the framework for cooperation. But if we go into details, into the individual projects, then we have to find the right people.”
You mentioned the issue of graduates. Are there enough quality graduates to match your company’s needs?
“When we look at our internship programmes for students, we definitely have a lot of very good students who apply. So IBM Czech Republic has not problem finding enough skilled workforce in the IT labour market. However, they have to undergo training during their internships such as soft-skill academy and special certifications, and we have to train them on top of what they bring from their universities.
“This is where I see that the universities and industry work together. We want to supplement their education with practice, to bring students to real problems. We don’t want to replace education process that’s done at universities.”
“I would say that we can confirm the results of a recent study by the University of Economics which did a survey of graduates in ICT industry and how they are prepared for the labour market. They measured it according to the number of hours of additional training they need. From this point of view, there is still a gap on the market, and especially in bachelors’ programmes whose graduates are not quite ready to be employed immediately.”
The Czech Education Ministry is now finalizing a university reform which should divide universities into three groups: research-oriented, academic, and professional-oriented schools. Do you think the reform will be helpful for the cooperation between universities and industry?
“I think the diversification could help in that the industry would get a more positive view of bachelors. So far, these programmes are an artificial product of the Bolognese process which split five years’ programmes into three years of bachelor and two years of master studies. But the important thing is to develop practical skills in the bachelors’ programmes so that when the graduates leave for the labour market, they must be employable.
“So there should definitely be more focus on developing the bachelors’ practical skills – I mean not only in the sense of expertise but skills that run across more areas, such as soft skills, technical skills, some technical experience, and so on.”
So how do you think the reform could improve collaboration between academics and people from the business sphere?
“I hope that in the area of quality control and accreditation, there will be possibilities in the future for the voice of industry to be heard. Industry is also interested in graduates getting jobs. So it would be good if industry representatives were also involved in the accreditation process so that they can comment on issues related to the quality of the courses and programmes.”
