Analysis of university-industry collaboration in curriculum development: a case study for the undergraduate programmes of Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA / Nor Hafizah Mohamed Harith ... [et al.]

One of the challenges for a university’s education is to fulfil the industries’ demand for a “ready to work” graduate. Today, the expectation of industries has sought for balance and holistic graduates who are equipped with a proper problem-solving and communication skills, critical thinking ability and hands-on practices throughout their university’s learning experiences. Therefore, getting the industries’ inputs and feedbacks in the curriculum design are crucial for determining the sustainability and relevance of an academic programme in a university. Hence, the study aims to analyse the industries’ current demands and feedbacks related to three undergraduates’ programmes offered in the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies (FSPPP), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). The study adopted a qualitative approach and employed Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and a market survey to selected industrial panel experts industries. A total of 18 panel experts involved in the FGD and 109 industrial panel experts were involved in the market survey. The findings of the study had revealed that, the need of industries on FSPPP’s curriculum design was centered on graduate preparedness theme in particular with sub-themes of; 1) knowledge and skills, 2) soft skills and 3) good ethical values. In addition, the findings also showed that the three FSPPP’s undergraduate programmes were considered relevant and matched with the needs and demands of the industries. This study concludes that in ensuring the sustainability of the FSPPP’s undergraduate academic programmes, the involvement of industries’ in reviewing a programme curriculum will remain significant in order to ensure the effectiveness of a curriculum offered at the Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).