gourova bulgaria

Industry-academia collaboration –cases of three Bulgarian universities

Assoc. Prof. Elissaveta GourovaSofia University

Moldova, 16-17.05.2012

Main topics

Introduction Bulgarian environment for industry-academia

collaboration Cases for industry involvement in HE

– Management skills for software engineers – Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists – Industrial practice for industrial engineers

Further Challenges

Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

• The first school of higher education in Bulgaria

• The largest and most prestigious university in Bulgaria, a big academic and scientific centre

• 16 Faculties on humanities and scientific disciplines

• More than 18 000 students and 3000 lecturers and administrative staff

Macroeconomic framework GDP structure

– Agriculture – 6%– Industry – 17%– Public sector– Services – 61%

Export – main part of raw or unprocessed products – Typical for less developed countries

Import – technology, machines, equipment, vehicles Rather good investment climate – law corporate taxation, law income

taxation (10%), stability, access to financing Foreign investments – telecommunications (18%), real estate (15%),

trade and vehicles (15,66%), electricity production (6,78%), construction (6%), services (5%), textile (4, 36%), food production (3,72%), production of rubber, plastics (3,99%), metal production (3,27%), chemistry (2,65%)

Structure

53 higher education institutes – 43 universities, 10 colleges (16 private)

Bulgarian Academy of sciences – 73 independent legal bodies (institutes, labs, centres, etc. ) – 66% of all publications

– Institute for parallel information processing– Institute of electronics– Institute for nuclear research and atom energy– Institute for microbiology– Institute for organic chemistry

Agriculture Academy – 27 research institutes, 19 experimental facilities

Research environment changes

Law on Academic staff development (2010)– Allocation of scientific degrees and titles– Recruitment of researchers (long-term)– Selection of PhD students

Law on Higher education (under revision)– Academic freedom – Rights and responsibilities of universities – Regular assessment of researchers– Career development (sabbatical leave)– 10% of state subsidy for research

Law on Research Promotion – National Science Fund

Main weaknesses in Bulgaria (European Innovation Scoreboard)

Weak links between science and businesses Not sufficient measures to develop innovation

infrastructure, support services, technological brokerage, intermediary services, etc.

Not involvement of university students in scientific and technological activities

Low innovative culture of researchers and weak innovative culture of businesses

Low level of investment in new products and processes Slow implementation of measures and not systematic

and transparent evaluation, etc.

Innovation firms by number of employees

Knowledge creation in Bulgaria

among 145 countries: 39 place in Physics 45 in Mathematics and Chemistry, growing publications

and their citation by other researchers 47 in Computer Science and Engineering, with

decreasing from 1995 to 2003 publications and their citations

very low commercialization of research results

Type of academia-industry collaboration in Bulgaria

6%Creation of new technologies

7%Studies of the effectiveness of technologies/ products/services

8%Assisting the management of business processes

11%Organization of student, doctoral, etc. practices

13%Training, seminars, conferences

17%Consultations

Main topics

Introduction Bulgarian environment for industry-academia

collaboration Cases for industry involvement in HE

– Management skills for software engineers – Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists – Industrial practice for industrial engineers

Further Challenges

Centre of Information Society Technology

Scientific Research Departmen

Faculty of Mathematics and Informatic

Centre of IST

Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski”

Industry

EU / MES

BSc and MSc Programs on

•Software engineering

•Computer Sciences

•Technology Entrepreneurship

•E-Business …

Research and education projects

Role of FMI

Strategy for ICT education in secondary schools

Curricula development for schools Teachers higher education and training E-Learning technology and methodology Building ICT professional skills ICT research and innovation

Implementing ACM / IEEE curricula at Sofia University

Computer Science Software Engineering Information Systems

– BSc, MSc & PhD

Technology entrepreneurship e-Business e-Learning

BSc students of FMI

very good level of skills in information technology, computer networks and data bases

more efforts in business intelligence

Innovation skills of FMI students product commercialization and business process

reengineering

Management skills for software engineers

New MSc programme on Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation in IT

– Sofia University, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics– Intel Europe – Training of professors at University of California, Berkley

Launched in 2008, most demanded by students– Course on Technology Entrepreneurship (Intel Europe) – Course on Establishing students company (Junior

achievement - Bulgaria) – Involvement of students in world competitions (HP, Intel)

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CURRICULUM, UC BERKELEY

MSc on Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation in IT

Basic courses Core course on entrepreneurship

Elective courses

Technology entrepreneurship

Innovation ManagementFinancial management and

venture capitalMarketing managementStrategic management

Business Process ManagementCRM

Organizational Behavior Knowledge management

Business IntelligenceProject management

e-BusinessBases of e-governance

Internet and law Graduate Student Company

Graduate Student Company Learning processes

Main topics

Introduction Bulgarian environment for industry-academia

collaboration Cases for industry involvement in HE

– Management skills for software engineers – Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists – Industrial practice for industrial engineers

Further Challenges

New Bulgarian UniversityDepartment of Telecommunications

New Bulgarian University– First Bulgarian private university– Flexible and efficient management structure– Readiness to respond to knowledge and skills needs

Department Telecommunications– Unique programme on Telecom management– High-qualified professors with experience in Telecom and postal

reforms, BTC, BNT, etc.– Close collaboration with Telecom Industry and Regulatory

Bodies– Close collaboration with Broadcasting stakeholders– Close collaboration with ICT Cluster

Telecommunications programmes

Bachelor Programs specialization: Telecommunication technologies and services Regulation and management in electronic communications Postal and currier technologies and services

Master Programs specialization: Telecommunication systems and technologies Radio communications and electronic media Regulation and management in Telecommunications Implementation of telecommunications projects

PhD Program scientific area: Communication and computer technologies

Collaboration: Bulgarian Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and

Communications Commission on regulation of telecommunications International Telecommunications Union

Students Practice: On the basis of frame contracts: in Bulgarian Posts, Siemens,

Ericsson, Electron-Radiocom, Vivacom, M-Tel, Germanos, etc. Telecommunications Laboratory at NBU

Collaboration with stakeholders

Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists

new interdisciplinary programme ‘Innovation and entrepreneurship in high tech’ elaborated in 2012 in collaboration with the ICT cluster

Programme topics:– Economic and legal environment– Management, finance and market specificity– Strategic management– Innovation and technology transfer– Competitiveness and IPR management– Web-based marketing – Engineering design– Software architectures– Project funding for innovations– Cultural and ethical issues of entrepreneurship

Main topics

Introduction Bulgarian environment for industry-academia

collaboration Cases for industry involvement in HE

– Management skills for software engineers – Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists – Industrial practice for industrial engineers

Further Challenges

Technical University – Sofia

established in 1945, the leading Bulgarian engineering university

competitive in engineering research and training - more than 1200 international projects, and many national projects funded by industry

dominance of projects funded by industry – only 25% funding from international sources

national award of the Agency for Energy efficiency award of Ministry of Education and Science for highest

financial contribution gained from international projects award ‘ICAR’ of the Bulgarian Industrial Association – for

its scientific and applied research

English Language Faculty of Engineering

Technical University - Sofia

ELFEFaculty of …

Department 1

Department 2

Department ?

Faculty ofAutomatics

DEM TOE Department ?

NIS

Industrial practice for engineers

Compulsory for students specialty Industrial Engineering BScprogram of ELFE

Goal: to acquaint students with real production, enterpriseorganization, marketing, human resourses, company policy, etc.

Teaching methodology: Visits to real production facilities, explanations from accompanying lecturers and enterprise staff

Enterprises: produce machine tools, DC motors, machinery and automatic transfer lines for packing, bottling and labeling, automatic transfer lines and machines for recycling of industrial goods

Bulgarian institute of metrology: visits to labs for measurement of time and frequency, acoustics, vibrations, optics, electricity, temperature, pressure, electrochemistry, etc.

Main topics

Introduction Bulgarian environment for industry-academia

collaboration Cases for industry involvement in HE

– Management skills for software engineers – Interdisciplinary skills of telecom specialists – Industrial practice for industrial engineers

Further Challenges

Survey goals

Main goal: – to collect quantitative data provided by researchers, – to summarize the personal attitudes of the staff and their approach

to research activities

Main issues studied:– Faculty staff experience, skills, and research interests and needs; – research priorities according to the staff – on European, on

national, and on personal short-term and long-term levels;– personal assessment of the organization and work within Faculty;– evaluation of the overall national environment and attitudes

toward researchers and research career in Bulgaria.

Needs for additional training

10%

23%

29%

8%

19%

33%

14%

27%

21%

12%

19%

27%

4%

27%

31%

methodicalapproach for

aquiring needsand expectationof stakeholders

well informedabout needs and

expectation ofstakeholders

availability offeedback fromstakeholders

feedback fromstakeholders isused for raisingperformance of

the faculty

awareness forimproving

communicationwith stakeholders

FA collaboration with stakeholdersFA Weak FA Average FA Strong

21%

32%

7%

21%

32%

7%

23%

23%

7%

25%

27%

3%

16%

41%

5%

methodicalapproach for

aquiring needsand expectationof stakeholders

well informedabout needs and

expectation ofstakeholders

availability offeedback fromstakeholders

feedback fromstakeholders isused for raisingperformance of

the faculty

awareness forimproving

communicationwith stakeholders

FMI collaboration with stakeholdersFMI Weak FMI Average FMI Strong

Summary

TU and SU have achieved many successes– Linking education programs to labour market needs and

students demands– University strategies in place– Well positioned in Bulgaria and the region

Driven by leaders understanding global challenges for research and industry organizations

A lot of challenges remain:– for the teaching staff to improve and widen competences– Strengthening collaboration with stakeholders– for changing of universities environment to motivate the staff

and attract young researchers

The way ahead

Undertake continuous efforts to progress the quality of Faculty’s education, training, information and research services to gain program competitiveness, high levels of achievement and a knowledgeable community.

Ensure that education and research services are relevant to the needs of Bulgarian people, workforce, industry and local and state government.

Release individuals of all ages with access to education, training and information services to develop their competences in order to be globally competitive workers, responsible citizens, and lifelong learners.

Ensure greatest benefit from education and research resources through efficient operation and management of the education and research system and investments in student learning centeredICT.

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?

For contacts:elis@fmi.uni-sofia.bg