These are some of the questions that PhD student Carl-Johan Asplund discusses in his thesis University-Industry Educational Collaboration: Knowledge spillovers and spillins through student-written cases and MSc theses in the subject Innovation at Design Sciences, The Faculty of Engineering, Lund University.

Carl-Johan Asplund has studied how different technology specializations, such as Industrial Engineering and Management, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering and Biotechnology, collaborate with companies and organizations and what knowledge transfer takes place between the university and the various organizations. The cases from university collaboration with companies and organizations show that the collaboration between the various actors must be carefully planned and implemented with a clear vision and common goal of what they hope the collaboration can contribute to.

When it comes to degree projects, the results are slightly different.

“In terms of degree projects, it is mainly the larger companies that feel they benefit from educational collaboration. This is noticeable in the recruitment of technologists and economists and linked to knowledge support in companies' innovation processes,“ says Carl-Johan Asplund.

The thesis concludes with a discussion of how a department at a university could act and organize itself to achieve more beneficial educational collaboration and greater value creation.