Other recommendations include “long term stability of the core funding of science and research”, a higher degree of collaboration between universities and employers to encourage placements, and partial sponsorship of student fees from firms in return for a fixed employment period after graduation.
Despite a policy focus on technology spin-offs from research, it is actually one of the least common forms of external knowledge exchange activity compared to interaction based on personal contacts, community and problem-solving. An ESRC-funded research project by the Centre for Business Research (CBR), looking at university-industry knowledge exchange, suggests that firms’ motivations to interact with universities – rather than being restricted to technology development – are concerned with other aspects of management and business performance, such as service development, human resource management, training and marketing.