Strengthening the university-company partnership: a collaborative design project

On a global scale, universities today are increasingly expected to enrich their curriculum with real-world learning experiences to increase student engagement and cultivate students’ critical social competencies. The topic of collaboration between universities and companies has been extensively debated, and there is a widespread acceptance of the notion that companies can genuinely contribute to teaching content by sharing cutting-edge knowledge, expertise, and resources. In this chapter, the authors examine the discrepancy between universities and companies in the design field to identify viable strategies to enhance collaboration between these sectors. The authors provide a design project conducted in partnership with a prominent global company as a case study to illustrate the effectiveness of such initiatives in closing the gap between universities and companies. The authors aspire to furnish fellow researchers in cognate fields with a valuable reference point, informed by the experiences gained from this project, to explore further and enhance design practice, achieving more substantial and consequential outcomes.