How partnerships with business are evolving to support student employability

One key insight for fellow academic leaders: don’t just invite industry to support your vision, invite them to shape it. When businesses are engaged early – whether in programme design, research development or student mentoring – partnerships become transformational. We move from preparing graduates for the world to shaping the world with them. 

Our Engineering Strategy 2030 links engineering education and research with meaningful, sustained partnerships between the university and business, community and global collaborators. Some aspects are aspirational – being piloted or developed – but they’re grounded in shared purpose. 

Here are key elements to move university-industry collaboration from partnering to co-building. 

1. Start with employability inclusive of ‘intrapreneurship’ 

One consistent motivation for business-university collaboration is talent acquisition. Employers want graduates who contribute immediately and grow with their fields; universities want their students to thrive. Mentorship by industry professionals creates a dynamic cycle of learning and organisational renewal. 

Engaging with industry advisory boards and global alumni also helps keep programmes aligned with evolving needs.  

• Let’s give students the skills to succeed in multiple careers, not just one job
• Cultivating a responsible innovation mindset among future tech leaders
• How to choose the right industry partners

But employability isn’t enough. Implementation of our 2030 strategy emphasises “intrapreneurship”, the ability to innovate within an organisation, further enabling graduates to take charge of this process, and means they graduate with job-ready skills and experience. For example, the UC Motorsport club is student-led and supported by industry partners. Student knowledge and University of Canterbury (UC) facilities are used to design and build electric racing cars, with students leading technically and professionally within constraints such as budgets. Some of these graduates move on to work in the racing industry and directly apply their technical skills, professional skills and ability to innovate.

2. Enable entrepreneurship through structured pathways 

Supporting entrepreneurship requires deliberate structures. Leading institutions globally are investing in ecosystems that include start-up incubators, business model training, pitch competitions and mentorship networks. 

Defining challenges in partnership with industry (or a societal segment) ensures relevance from the outset. Medsalv and KiwiFibre, for example, originated in engineering but evolved when those students accessed business communication mentoring through UC’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, recognising that a business is only as successful as the ability to communicate its value and potential impact. 

Institutions might track outcomes such as: 

• number of student ventures reaching commercialisation
• industry participation in venture advisory panels
• graduate employment in innovation-intensive sectors. 

3. Introduce a multi-year project-based spine 

In some institutions, engineering education is shifting from final-year capstone projects to multi-year developmental projects. This change is also being influenced by updates to international accreditation frameworks (such as the Washington Accord), which emphasise longitudinal development. 

In such a model, students work on increasingly complex, societally relevant challenges across all years of study, often starting with small interventions and growing into capstone-scale solutions. 

To succeed, institutions could: 

• Create a full degree project pathway for their students, supported by an interdisciplinary range of courses in humanities, business, law and social sciences. The students should start broad and become more specialised by their final year. Projects should be shaped by input from industry and community partners and supported throughout the programme.
• Collaborate with external partners across government – for example, local city councils, iwi (a Māori concept based on tribal or kinship links), NGOs or industry.
• Ensure projects are evaluated on technical, environmental, ethical and commercial dimensions. 

4. Establish co-funded research and innovation chairs 

Research and innovation chairs, jointly funded by universities and industry, can align research excellence with long-term industry relevance and competitiveness. To implement these effectively, universities can: 

• Identify strategic areas that align with national and institutional priorities. At UC, these typically include areas such as sustainability and climate resilience, digital systems and cybersecurity, earthquake and infrastructure engineering, aerospace and remote sensing, advanced manufacturing, and health technologies.
• Develop memoranda of agreements with embedded governance, and review mechanisms and long-term commitments. 

Scholarships and embedded research positions often sit alongside these chairs, helping to deepen collaboration and build trust.

5. Co-create technology from the beginning 

Technology transfer is more effective when businesses are engaged at the research design stage, not just at the point of commercialisation. Co-creation increases relevance, accelerates deployment and reduces translational friction.

Effective models include:

• joint problem-framing and priority-setting
• adjunct appointments or industry secondments to blur boundaries between sectors
• intellectual property (IP) arrangements agreed at the outset, with flexibility to support investment pathways. These could include time-bound exclusive licences, shared IP models or royalty-based agreements that are industry- and investor-friendly. 

This builds confidence, transparency and a clearer path from discovery to deployment. 

6. Scale through local and global partnerships 

Strategic scaling depends on leveraging global and local strengths. At the local level, initiatives such as the New Zealand Product Accelerator (NZPA) have supported the development of more than 300 commercial products, many with student and research involvement. Such programmes provide: 

• a platform and funding for industry-led problem-solving
• a training ground for students to apply learning
• a bridge to employment and innovation ecosystems.

7. Leverage student clubs as innovation gateways

UC’s student clubs embed collaboration into campus culture. Groups such as the Engineering Society and Motorsport Club host employers, lead technical projects and connect students with mentors.

8. Support lifelong learning as a core offering

Lifelong learning strengthens ongoing industry-university relationships. Short courses, microcredentials and continuing professional development (CPD), when developed with industry, help professionals remain current in fast-changing fields. Areas such as artificial intelligence, digital twin systems, environmental policy and leadership remain high-impact zones for CPD.

9. Recognise that strategy is the beginning, not the end 

Strategy 2030 isn’t a static plan. It’s a flexible framework, developed through workshops with industry, students and community members, and grounded in my own leadership experience across South Africa, the US and now Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s designed to be tested, refined and co-developed in real time. 

Successful collaboration isn’t about delivering finished plans, it’s about building open, evolving relationships that serve people, industry and the future. 

Saurabh Sinha is professor and executive dean of engineering at the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, New Zealand. 

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