Pathology of University - Industry Relation

Although the relation between industry and university has always been a very important issue, today, in a knowledge–based and innovative economy, it is considered to be vital and inevitable. These two institutions are the main actors in national innovation systems and their redefined relation plays the most important role in commercialization of scientific knowledge and in economic development. Besides their traditional mission in higher education and research, universities hold new responsibilities in technology development and in entrepreneurship. They produce knowledge with economic value, providing background for knowledge–based innovation for industry and economic firms. Fortunately, the approach of the 4th Five Year Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan in our country is toward the knowledge–based development. The most important requirement for this mode of development is redefinition of the role of university and industry and facilitation of internalized relation between these two organizations. In order to explore the main obstacle of university–industry relation, the cycle of knowledge production and the demand for knowledge should be analyzed precisely. For years, universities were mainly involved in education and fundamental research, whereas the content of this education and research was not always necessarily relevant to the needs and expectations of industry. Regarding the demand for knowledge, on the other hand, industry was mainly based on the technology imported from abroad, and needless to the scientific achievements of universities and research centers, it was proceeding its own policies. This defective cycle has pushed the universities to the margin of the society and also has caused the industry to suffer from lack of technological innovations. As a consequence, the technology development system has not been established in the country and the concepts like entrepreneurship and innovation have not found an appropriate position in our economic system. In this article some factors which have disturbed the cycle of production and the demand for knowledge and weakened university–industry relation are reviewed. Also some capacities of 4th Five Year Development Plan to facilitate and strengthen this relation are explored.