What Does Industry Suggest to Academia on Software Engineering Education?

Abstract

Software professionals might face difficulties after beginning their careers due to misalignment of the skills learnt during their university education. Although Software Engineering (SE) is shaped by both the industry and academia, whose goals and contributions are different, there are some mismatches in perceptions of software practitioners about academic activities; hence, the level of Industry Academia Collaboration (IAC) in software industry is low compared to other industrial sectors. To investigate the skills gaps and understand different opinions of practitioners to increase such IACs, we conducted an online survey. 628 software practitioners, whose undergraduate degree was completed in Turkey, responded to the survey. In this study, we explored the suggestion of software practitioners on SE education. We believe that this study sheds light on improving mutual understanding to close the gaps between academia and industry.