Review of Curriculum Development for University-Industry Collaborations with a Comparative Analysis on Master of Industrial Product Design Education

Abstract

University-industry collaboration (UIC) provides not only effective training for students but also knowledge production in universities for industry to contribute to the economy (Bektaş & Tayauova, 2013). The paper proposes to analyse reasons for deficiencies in UIC with a comparative analysis of the curriculum of the industrial design (ID) department of Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) and Linnaeus University (LNU), and taking feedback from industry. As a comparative analysis of curriculum, ID programmes in IZTECH and LNU were examined to understand differences and similarities. To develop UIC for IZTECH, LNU was accepted as an example, and then the two institutions were compared according to each curriculum. For comparison of ID courses, the taxonomy method in the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD) Handbook 2014-2015 was used. There are three categories for design courses, which are professional design practice (PDP), design studies (DS), and design thinking (DT). Within the scope of curriculum development for university-industry collaboration, feedback was taken from companies that have a design department or are an employer of new ID graduates. For this purpose, surveys were sent to different companies. As a result of curriculum analysis and a survey with industry, courses that need to be developed belong to PDP and DT groups, which are more practice and teamwork based.
A solution can be adding new courses to curriculum that contain more teamwork and innovative and collaborative activities. Also, content of existing courses can be developed on DT characteristics.