This British Council event considers how the development of industry engagement practices in higher education is reflected in partnership opportunities between UK and Malaysia. The event is set against a strong background of UK-Malaysia Higher Education collaboration, and a focus in both countries on the role of university-industry engagement in driving excellence, impact and economic outcomes from research and education activities.
This event is planned as the first in a series of conversations with UK and Malaysia key sector stakeholders, that will go on to explore in more detail the practices, issues and opportunities for collaboration across the spectrum of relevant activities: research, in teaching and education, students and graduate talent as well as the role universities play in society.
UK- Malaysia cooperation on science and innovation has developed through the UK-Malaysia Partners in Science programme, initiated in 2007. As part of the UK-East Asia Higher Education Partnerships Programme,the British Council has previously (2019) supported work addressing university-industry engagement as part of UK East Asia HE collaboration. The underpinning value of university- industry engagement was considered in in the UK-Malaysia context in the 2019 report on “Enhancing the sustainability of technology transfer and research management in higher education institutions through strategic UK- Malaysia university partnerships. ”
In January 2021, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education announced six priorities to help the Malaysia education sector to recover from the impact of COVID-19, including graduate employability, entrepreneurship and strengthening collaboration networks with industry to link academic expertise with industry capabilities. This aligns with the key strategic thrusts in the Malaysian Higher Education Blueprint 2015-2025, which identified Innovation Ecosystems and holistic student development as priorities, aiming to drive greater levels of private sector involvement in research, innovation and teaching and learning.
In the UK industry engagement has been a sustained policy focus for universities, strongly linked to the industrial strategy and ambition to raise R&D expenditure to 2.4% of GDP. It is a core element of current policy focus via the Knowledge Exchange Framework.
This webinar is designed to provide a broad-brush perspective from UK and Malaysia including:
- Sharing an overview of the UK and Malaysian landscape for University -Industry engagements
- Exploring challenges and opportunities in the Covid-19 era; and
- Discussing frameworks and models of best practices to support partnerships.