Strengthening University Third Mission Through Education – Enterprise Cooperation: The Value of Innovation Ecosystems

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study is to provide an in-depth insight into the missions and roles of universities in socio- economic ecosystems, with a focus on the third essential direction of education: the relationship with socio-economic partners. Specifically, the paper presents the results of a research that investigated the views of purposefully selected representatives from academia, business, government and public institutions, and civil sector on education-enterprise cooperation in Romania. The research subjects followed an interview protocol, one-to-one, semi-structured interview, where they were asked a series of questions related to their perceptions, opinions and experiences regarding education- enterprise cooperation and the value of innovation ecosystems. 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. In order to strengthen university-business cooperation, the interviewees have suggested: developing strategic action plans to achieve the objectives of working with the university in an effective manner, supporting collaboration between academics and professionals in the socio-economic/ business fields to ensure better initial and continuous education of students and graduates and the inception of funding programmes and instruments. Therefore, this research study supports, through the results obtained, the cooperation between education and businesses and provides concrete measures and actions to be taken within innovation ecosystems to boost cooperation and outcomes.