A Survey on Relationship between Engineering Colleges of Tehran's Public Universities and Industry, within the Framework of National Innovation System

The purpose of this study to examine the relationships between college of engineering in Tehran’s public universities- affiliated with Ministry of Science, Research and Technology- and industry according to Iran’s National Innovation System (NIS). NIS is a system approach in flow of knowledge (creation, dissemination, and utilization) in national level. According to NIS, innovation and technology development are results of a set of relationships between actors in the system such as industrial enterprises and universities. The sample was composed of 250 faculty members, 54 senior administrators across variety of industries, and 748 B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. students in engineering colleges of Tehran’s public universities. The results indicated that the relationship activities between universities and industry based on NIS’s criteria in research and development, financial funding of R&D, human resource development, technology dissemination, improving entrepreneurship, and good/service production are less than perceived average with 95 percent level of confidence.