Restrictions on Employer-University engagement

For engagement to take place and flourish there must be mutual benefits for both partners in the relationship. Even where such potential benefits exist there may be constraints on their realization. Few barriers were identified by academic staff:

An award leader at Health Faculty explained the difficulty in identifying ‘who does what’. Where links were established they often depended on interpersonal relationships that were vulnerable to staff turnover so it was difficult to maintain links even where they had been established;

Lengthy and slow process, some employers felt that the university is deficient in terms of customer service and delivery to agreed timetables. Outdated and cumbersome university management practices tended to be slow.

Developing course and meeting business needs takes time but businesses too oftenchange their requirement which means that the university has to keep their courses up-to-date and rapidly innovate new courses to maintain the relationship with the employers and establish long-term strategic commitments towards them

Employer Engagement

We had several informal talks with tutors & award leaders about their experiences with employer engagement during the validation process we have set up an online discussion to exchange ideas. The majority stressed the importance of employer’s involvement in course development and their collaboration with the University which is considered imperative to bring significant economic benefits to the Midland area.

The role played by Staffs University within Staffordshire depended on the nature of economic activity in the region, bearing in mind the other competitors institutions (Keele University, University of Wolverhampton and Manchester Open University)

The most successful example of this type of activity in the past was the orientation towards the ceramic industry and NHS which stimulated the local economy. The University supplied these organisations with highly skilled and qualified labour. It played an important role in developing local and regional economies; however more awareness to the new diverse businesses need to be addressed.

A Computer Science tutor from FCET pointed out that some large companies have already developed relationships with the University e.g. Siemens ,BT and IBM to ensure that the system produces the type of technical and generic skills they require, and to ensure that they have access to a supply of suitably skilled graduates.

However, it is essential to consider the orientation and aspirations of different types of regional growing businesses and develop courses that meet their requirements. Faculties and Schools are willing to collaborate with local employers to provide them with graduates fitted to the jobs. This raises the questions of extent to which employers are willing to work with university to develop the required skills and the actions they are willing to take to participate in developing these skills, and also the extent to which the academic staff are willing to work with employers.

The University is trying to minimise complaints made by some sections of the business community. They argued that the University (and other UK HE institutions) do not produce graduates with the vocational or generic skills that meet their needs as employers. Others mentioned that the University is overly concerned with ‘academic’ research and publications at the expense of applied or innovative research.

The opening up of markets means that businesses in the UK can source skilled labour or services from overseas (often at a much lower cost), therefore, the products of the University must be a key to competitive success for local and national businesses.