Thesis projects in collaboration with firms and organizations

Purpose and goal

The purpose of this research project is to increase knowledge about the impact of educational collaboration, with a particular focus on graduate work done in collaboration with companies, authorities and organizations. The purpose has been achieved. We report results that affect the effects of graduate work in collaboration on education quality, labor market matching and knowledge transfer to companies. The overall result is that collaborative work is done almost exclusively at the technical faculty and to a limited extent at the business and social science faculty.

Expected results and effects

In the case of graduate work in collaboration, they are almost exclusively at Lund University of Technology, where approximately 2/3 of the degree work takes place in collaboration. The quality of education is largely positively influenced by collaboration in the degree projects, as well as helping students with entry into the labor market. Five types of knowledge transfer to companies take place through the degree work: 1) recruiting employees, 2) solve specific problems, 3) gain knowledge of new technologies, 4) get new ideas, and 5) maintain contact with education and university.

Planned approach and implementation

The study has used a narrow definition of degree work in education collaboration: a degree project involving at least one company or organization where there are clear indications that knowledge transfer has taken place through the existence of a clear recipient of the knowledge of the collaborating company or organization. The data collection has been done in four ways: 1) Review of all degree projects, 2) Surveys for graduate students, 3) Interviews with collaborative companies and organizations´ contact persons, and 4) Interviews with study directors.