The importance of industry knowledge and soft skills in designing curricula

Working with industry can bring benefits for both higher education establishments and their students. During a session at THE Campus Live US, held in partnership with Coursera for Campus, the panel discussed the importance of nurturing relationships with industry and how to overcome the challenges of doing so.

Collaboration with businesses must involve faculty, said Alan Drimmer, president of Cleary University. The panel agreed that faculty members can sometimes be resistant to working with industry partners and that it was important for leaders to highlight the benefits of such collaboration. “[Faculty are] responsible for the integrity of the curriculum,” Drimmer said. “It’s very important that whatever resources we’re using are tied to the application of learning objectives.”

Robert Hausladen, executive-in-residence of marketing at the College of Business at the University of Louisville, shared a hurdle he had faced when integrating industry partners into curricula. “A faculty member said if we did these things at the behest of a business, we were becoming a trade school. We’ve passed that point already because once you have a business college, you’re in the business of helping students become ready to go into the business world.”

A recent Coursera survey revealed that employability is now the second-most important consideration for students when choosing a college, after location. “[Students] are the people we have to serve,” Hausladen said. “They come into college looking for the opportunity to get a job.” It is the responsibility of universities to establish employers’ needs and support students to meet them, he said.

The panel discussed the benefits of incorporating material created by industry giants such as Google and Meta into curricula. Drimmer said brand recognition could go a long way with employers and students were excited to associate with them. Christopher Nitsch, skills transformation advisor at Coursera, added: “These are the leaders in these areas. It really lays down a level of security that what [students are] learning is going to be transferable into a career.”

As well as industry knowledge, employers want students to have soft skills. Colleges must bake these essential skills into all areas of the curriculum and highlight the importance of such skills in creating well-rounded graduates, Drimmer said.

Jeff Guan, interim dean of the College of Business at the University of Louisville, explained that most of his college’s courses required students to gain workplace experience. Once they’ve completed this aspect of the course, they “relate to the content much more easily”, making his teaching more effective, he said.

Guan also stressed the importance of good communication between businesses and higher education institutions. “It takes a lot of work,” he said. “The best way to keep an employer engaged is to really understand them. Use them like a Trojan horse to get inside of the company and understand what’s going on there and what are their concerns.” Once a relationship of mutual interest has been established, institutions can produce deeper opportunities and collaborations.

“It’s time-consuming but ultimately so satisfying,” Drimmer concluded. “You can have an impact on a whole organisation.”

The panel:

• Paul Basken, editor (North America), Times Higher Education (chair)
• Alan Drimmer, president, Cleary University
• Jeff Guan, interim dean of the College of Business, University of Louisville
• Robert Hausladen, executive-in-residence of marketing, College of Business, University of Louisville
• Christopher Nitsch, skills transformation advisor, Coursera

Find out more about Coursera.