Knowledge transfer of University-Enterprise cooperation to Chinese and Vietnamese Universities
There are growing difficulties faced by Chinese and Vietnamese university graduates in landing the first job because what they learn at universities does not match the market’s need in a rapidly changing economy. The highly competitive job market and growing unemployment pressure have triggered university students’ interest in seeking creativity and entrepreneurship education. In order to meet the students’ needs in dynamic market conditions universities from China and Vietnam look up to European partners for good practices.
Vilnius University together with University of Kent, Skoda Auto University and University of Siena, as EU partners of the three year Erasmus+ Capacity Building project “Joint Enterprise University Learning” (JEUL) will share its expertise and knowledge related to involving businesses into University activities to achieve excellence together.
The aim of this project is to establish and develop lasting cooperation among HEI and private sector, to influence the way universities work and enable them to learn from the entrepreneurial nature of companies, develop and use case studies based on the experience of companies - enhance their teaching and learning methods and gain an understanding of the needs of enterprises and improve the curricula accordingly. The idea is to move towards becoming Entrepreneurial Universities.
Although educational entrepreneurship is not new in both China and Vietnam, expertise on developing university-enterprise cooperation is not always managed to respond adequately to the current challenges. The involvement of EU universities and their experience in developing a joint university-private sector model is essential to enable partner countries universities to change the present situation. JEUL project will introduce innovative elements, which will have a positive impact and a spillover effect on other relevant stakeholders in partner countries (China and Vietnam).
The main innovative elements of JEUL project are:
- Introduction of case studies methodology focused on local firms and economic environment. Most of academic literature on case studies in partner countries is based on foreign experience, which is not always relevant in the partner countries context.
- Strengthening practice oriented teaching methodology. The practical approach of case studies and teaching methodology mostly focused on real life situations and problem solving is an element of innovation in the partner countries universities, where teaching methodology is often too theoretical oriented.
- JEUL will foster cooperation both at regional level (Chinese and Vietnamese will cooperate actively together, trying to develop a model of university-industry which fits better for their national and regional settings) and at wider level (all the project activities will involve active participation both of European and partner countries universities). The gap between the academic world and industry in partner countries is still too large and the activities supported by JEUL project aims at reducing it, fostering cooperation at intra-regional (within the Asian region) and extra-regional (between Asia and Europe) level.
- The 2-module Enterprise Pathway will be established, which will be taught as optional subjects and will renew curricula in partner universities. This element of flexibility has the advantage of being more easily adopted in partner countries universities. Moreover, the benefits of such modules will facilitate the development of similar modules, which will further enrich the academic offer in partner universities.
To sum up, the project will enable universities to become more entrepreneurial with more relevant curricula and more effective teaching and learning methods.
For more information about the project follow the project via LinkedIn group.
Article prepared by Vilnius University representatives.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
