University-Industry Collaboration in Research and Development in Malaysian Universities

Abstract

The focus of this study is on types of university-industry collaboration in R&Dprojects in Malaysian universities. The study identified the benefits derived fromUniversity-Industry collaborations as it relates to performance of R&D project andthe characteristics of R&D projects that encourage industry to collaborate withuniversities. It also makes recommendations towards increasing performance of R&Dprojects based on the data collected and analysed. Exploratory approach was used inthis study. This approach explored the collaboration types and how it contributed toR&D performance. Quantitative analysis was used by analysing questionnaire data.The reliability of the questionnaire items was tested. The respondents were people withexperience in U-I collaborations. Data was analysed based on the five major elementsin the theoretical framework. These are: benefits, performance, characters, practiceand barrier. Based on the findings from the study, all of these five elements should becombined to ensure better R&D performance. The contribution of this study is thesuggestions to universities in Malaysia and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)to encourage increasing numbers of U-I collaborations.