The University is preparing its strategic plan for the coming years. This column was informed that it is a bit premature to open the discussion on this plan to readers of this paper. The plan is still being drafted and is in the very early stages. It still needs to be discussed in Senate and Council.
Therefore the presentation of this plan will be resumed at a later stage. This should enable the plan to have more open space for internal gestation before it is made open for public discussion.
In this ambit it is worth examining some thoughts being considered in other countries. This is what Loet Leydesdorff from Science & Technology Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam and Henry Etzkowitz from the Science Policy Institute of the State University of New York wrote in the Electronic Journal of Sociology on the transformation of university-industry-government relations.
"The expansion of the role of knowledge in society and of the university in the economy can be analysed in terms of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations. An expanding network system of interactive spirals is generated as university, industry, and government engage to promote economic development and academic research. The entrepreneurial university that can be created from this constellation encompasses and transcends previous academic missions of education and research. The mission of economic development is increasingly added to that of the reproduction of the knowledge base and the systematic production of scientific novelty.
"Although only a small fraction of university innovations, relative to R&D budgets, is actually utilised by industry, a transmission belt of firm-formation has been created, often with government assistance, through incubator facilities and entrepreneurship centers. The Triple Helix of university, industry, and government is exemplified in new organisational mechanisms that promote innovation and new business formation. This structure differs dramatically, in its functions and roles, from the innovation model that existed prior to the emergence of knowledge-based economic and social development.
"A transformation in the functions of university, industry, and government is taking place as each institution can assume the role of the other. Under certain circumstances, the university can take the role of industry, helping to form new firms in incubator facilities. Government can take the role of industry, helping to support new developments through funding programs and changes in the regulatory environment. Industry can take the role of the university in developing training and research, often at the same high level as universities."
At the University of Malta, for example, following the official opening of the Engineering and IT Final Year Projects Exhibition on July 3 by the Prime Minister, members from the Chamber of Engineers and MITTS visited the respective exhibitions to judge the projects. This is part of an ongoing collaboration between the University and Industry. The best projects will be announced during the graduation ceremony in November.