ACADEMIA, PRIVATE SECTOR NEED SOME CHEMISTRY

The world has become global village that makes partnership vital to address the challenges of the society. More so, the governments have always seen private sector as a viable partner. One partnership that is still struggling and faces with challenges is that of university-industry linkages.  Recently Nairobi was the venue of academia–private sector partnership forum under the auspice of Inter University Council of Eastern Africa (IUCEA). 

I was among the panelists in round table discussion on the theme.

As I made my presentations and listened to  my  colleagues doing theirs  and  later the recommendation,  one  thing  was clear; there  is very little  innovation, as a lot has been  discussed. There is no doubt that the passion and desire on this issue and even how to address them was demonstrated by the eminent speakers.

However, implementation strategies and timelines still remain a challenge. Universities were encouraged to change the attitude of ‘publish or perish’ to innovate for development; engage policy makers more often, re- design university role from teaching, training research to community engagement. Private sector were asked to look at things we can produce and manufacture locally such as tooth- picks, nails  and  even bicycles and motorcycles. Above all we all reiterated the need for human resource capacity building survey to determine the needs in long term partnership to look at the horizon of at least 15 years; encourage more philanthropists and introduce tax incentives. The Government was reminded to take up its full responsibilities of social health and education as this is their business and   support private sector initiate projects.

Strong leadership

Participants emphasized that political will is paramount to develop indigenous private sector. All sounds familiar right?  There is a need to have a paradigm shift in this area. We must ask questions on why this marriage has not been so smooth. What needs to be done to cement it and strengthen the partnership? First we must have strong leadership from both sides, and partnership. Second, we should base our relationship on trust and stop the blame game. The academia has been accusing the private sector of sitting on the fence and doing  little  in supporting the academia, while the industries has been a urging that universities are producing half baked  students and having programmes that  do not  meet  the demands of the markets.

Academia-private sector linkages are important at providing the point of connection between knowledge and human resources produced by higher education institutions in the region on the one hand, and its application and dissemination by the private sector. The African knowledge technology partnerships model, for instance, leverages research, scientific knowledge and skills through innovation.