Prof Eshiwani said this will be possible if research and development will be fortified. “It is through research that new knowledge is generated, packaged and disseminated to a wide variety, national and international community.”
The former Vice Chancellor (VC) of Kenyatta University who was speaking during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Mount Kenya University and Export Processing Zones program (EPZA) said “the development of new technologies and innovations are critical to the industrial development of this country.”
He said that the linkage between the industry and institutions of higher learning is important as they will complement one another. There is “higher level of research concentrated at universities,” he pointed out, adding that “companies can benefit a lot in technology development if they are able to leverage the technical resource for the universities.”
Prof Eshiwani who is a professor of mathematics challenged universities to develop appropriate technological innovations towards industrial development as well as disseminate their research findings to the scientific and industrial communities.
He reminded the Universities not to loose their identity - “to teach, research, provide community service and consultation in key expertise areas” as they engage in priority areas of research and consultancy as they promote and facilitate partnership and collaboration with the industry.
Although in the recent past the Kenya Manufacturing Association CEO, Ms Betty Maina challenged the Universities curriculum that it is not in resonance with industrial needs and graduates are not ready for the job market during the linkage between the industry and academia (LIWA) conference – Prof Eshiwani said the the industry stands a chance of winning from the coorperation.
The industry will have an “access to basic and applied research results from which new products and process evolve,” the professor who has been spearheading fish farming (after he completed his term of service as VC from Kenyatta University) in the Western part of the country, further said “solutions to specific problems or specific expertise, not usually found in an individual company” can be harnessed.
However, he pointed out that Universities will greatly benefit as the industry will afford research funding and industrial environment to students and faculty thus “exposure to the real world research problems.”
“Industrial sponsored research provides universities researchers a chance to work on an intellectually challenging research programme,” he said, as he pointed out that the University-Industry linkage should involve research consortia, industrial associate or affiliation program and the development of business incubators and research parks among others.
“The University and Industry exist for different purposes. Hence it is critical to have organization to coordinate the Universities and Industries,” he said. “While there are such an organizations in developed countries, there are no such organization in Kenya to negotiate university-Industry research coorporation and transfer.”
EPZA which is charged by the Kenyan government to increase exportation of the country as well as integrate the country into the global supply chain to attract export-oriented investment thus creating job opportunities, diversify and expand of exports, and lubricate technology transfer among others is expected to enhance the building of trust and shared knowledge base, organize networks, and provide complementary resources through the MOU.
Its in this context that Ms Maina said that industry is ready to coorporate with the universities if the decide to become flexible enough to ride on the wave of the reality.
However the academia has said that there are a matrix of factors in which the linkage should be approached with, example limited internship for the students, break bureaucracy in the universities, and lack of mutual coorporation in curriculum development as well as the industry lack of involvement of the academia in their strategy building.
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