Leveraging academic industry partnerships for inclusive virtual learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious disruptions to higher education institutions across the globe, prompting even the ill-prepared ones to embrace virtual teaching and learning approaches. Academic-industry partnerships remain an under-utilised and under-researched mutually beneficial way of strengthening organisational performance. This study used the case of Zimbabwe to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the types and extent of cooperation between academic institutions and industry towards inclusive virtual learning in public and private universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used electronic questionnaires and virtual interviews to collect data from a sample of 100 university staff and executives in industry. The findings revealed major challenges concerning infrastructure, facilities, high cost of data and intermittent power cuts. At present, particularly in public universities, academic-industry synergies were focused on internet and data provision. However, no support was made available for infrastructure and related facilities. The study recommended the need for strong academic-industry partnerships towards funding infrastructure and facilities to enhance virtual teaching and learning.