Higher education turns to industry to meet community needs, boost funding

Korea University College of Liberal Arts Dean Lee Hi-kyoung, right, speaks during a discussion session titled "Elevating Local Roots to Global Reach in Higher Education," for the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 at Korea University in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Universities are increasingly forging strategic partnerships with industry and expanding into new academic fields to sharpen their brand, bolster funding opportunities and meet evolving community needs, scholars participating in the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 said Wednesday.

During a discussion session, titled “Elevating Local Roots to Global Reach in Higher Education,” King Saud University Computational Mathematics professor Abir Alharbi described how institutions can deepen their relevance by aligning with external partners and diversifying into emerging disciplines.

“You are serving the community and at the same time you are also giving them the right knowledge,” she said at a session on the second day of the summit at Korea University in Seoul, stressing that such efforts can open doors to industry-sponsored research budgets and practical collaborations.

Alharbi also highlighted the importance of governance, clarity of roles and mutual language in partnerships between academia and industry.

She emphasized the need to speak in business terms about roles, deliverables, patent ownership and risks and cautioned against unequal resource contributions.

“If you are coming with faculty and students and they are coming with money, then it has to become written in the collaboration that there is trust between the two partners so that each partner is doing their part,” she said.

These collaborations in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence or climate change were highlighted as effective models. She said that institutions are now advised to strategically select partners that share an interest in the chosen domain, leverage institutional strengths, cultivate a collaborative culture and remain adaptive and flexible — echoing the view that academia can no longer afford to remain inward-looking or rigid.

Korea University College of Liberal Arts Dean Lee Hi-kyoung highlighted her school’s summer school program designed to study issues related to climate change.

Launched in July, the weeklong international forum brought together 130 scholars and students from 35 universities worldwide to devise solutions in area including energy policy, circular economy and food security.

The initiative builds on Korea University’s globalization agenda, which also encompasses its well-attended programs.

“It was an excellent opportunity for us to see what we could do in terms of environmental and social impact. It elevated our global reputation in terms of environment and climate change research," she said, adding that the university forged several partnerships through the effort.

"This was a venue for knowledge exchange. It focused on the university, the wider community and the global community as well.”