Industrial, academic, employability

1. Industry-academia linkage in Pakistan, the call of the time
Industry-academia linkage (IAL) can be depicted as interactive, mutually
inclusive goals and objectives oriented between industry and the academic
world. The pillars of the academic world stand on creativity, philosophy, and
theory, whereas the industry exists on prevalent commercially feasible ideas.
Conversely, academia is software, and industry is hardware. To understand the
gap better, suppose a professor has delivered thousands of lectures on
swimming but never put his feet in the water till his retirement; he will always
remain unskilled and incomplete in his field. So, it’s a matter of demand and
supply gap between the industry and the academic world.
The curriculum is written decades ago, whereas industry moves on forward on
a daily basis. In the modern world, market trends and the pace of the industry
are far faster than before. This is why when an engineer enters a factory shop
floor; he comes immediately to know that he does not practically understand
many things...... (paper out of syllabus). The real second half of the learning
journey stems from that point of an intellectual shock to an engineer.
The industry-academia linkage (IAL) is indispensable for commercial
organizations, educational institutions, and the nation as a whole. The industrial
revolution was not possible without following this concept. The interaction must
be reciprocal for conducting applied research. Sharing projects among the
students is another dilemma. It’s like four bed home shared by four people
without any acknowledgment of the one’s bed. Engineers have to study 18
hours to get admission to reputed universities, but after admission, they are not
cerebrally grilled like medical and accountancy students are done. The labs of
the majority of technical institutions are outdated, without calibrations, and
crippled. The universities don’t have in-house training facilities.
Respected ladies and gentlemen, Let’s have a look on some facts in this regard,

2.  Pakistan is not much different from other South Asian countries in facing
the ill effects of this gap. The gap between technology and curriculum is
long-standing, especially in the third world.
 A year ago, Pakistan was rated 99th among the 132 economies in the
Global Innovation Index in 2021.
 Pakistan’s position of 134th out of 157 countries in the Human Capital
Index is mocking us.
 Students don’t have enough facilities to consume time on factories’ floors.
Resultantly, overseas organizations expect the students seeking
admission to endorse their education from their visiting countries.
 Pakistan, among its other south Asian counterparts, is lagging behind in
the development of quality products and its export to the world due to the
lack of Research & Development.
 In Pakistan, out of about 200 HEC-recognized public and private
universities, only 60% have some collaborations with private and public
sector organizations. Unfortunately, most of these 60% exists only on
papers or dumped under the dust. Let’s see how we can eliminate this
gap.
Over the years, industry-academia collaboration has enhanced knowledge,
innovation and played an integral part in the economic growth of developed
countries. The linkage of academia and industry has a strategic role in
developing critical skills required by industry (both production and service
sector), generation, acquisition, and adoption of knowledge, and in promoting
entrepreneurship (start-ups and spin-offs).
Similarly, the expansion of market driven research and innovation at university
level can be utilized at industrial level to foster commercialization.
In developed countries, these linkages have been mutually beneficial for
industry and academia. The interaction between industry and academia has
been a key for economic growth in developed world. The focus of academia has
to be on the current needs and market trends. Unless industry and academia is
not on the same page, there will always be a mismatch between the skills and
knowledge required at industry and the graduates produced by universities. In
Pakistan, the IAL situation is not encouraging.

3. Therefore Immediate solution which I propose here is that Chamber of
commerce has to play a significant role and it needs to act as a frontline party
in developing a strong linkage. Bringing industry and academia is a challenging
task. The goals, objectives and motives of both parties may vary from each
other.
For example; universities may want to collaborate with industry for improvement
of teaching, access to funding, reputation enhancement, and access to
empirical data from industry.
While the motive behind industry to connect with academia may be to gain
access to complementary technological knowledge (including patents and tacit
knowledge), tapping into a pool of skilled workers, providing training to existing
or future employees, gaining access to the university's facilities and equipment,
gaining access to public funding and incentives; firms may also seek to reduce
risks by sharing the costs of R&D, and to influence the overall teaching and
research agenda of universities.