Industry-Academia Collaborations: The Shell Sabbatical Model
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The quality of graduates produced by any institution is assessed by the ability of those graduates to add value to the business of their employers. Research has shown that the factors with the greatest impact on the quality of the graduates include the quality of the curriculum, the delivery method, the quality of the lecturers and the motivation of the students. The shell sabbatical model takes University lecturers with relevant proposals and integrates them into the company for a period of One year giving them the opportunity of participating fully in the company operations. This provides them with an opportunity to learn the culture of the industry and understand the skill requirement of the industry while contributing to the company business. It also provides these lecturers with an insight into the needs of the industry thus shaping their research directions. This model impacts on the quality of the lecturer, the curriculum and the teaching method by providing the lecturer with access to the latest technology in the industry, enabling the lecturer to identify relevant modifications that should be made to the curriculum of his courses and changing his teaching methods as he is now able to teach with practical examples and real life illustrations and scenarios. This also results in an increased motivation as they are taught with real life scenarios and examples. This paper reviews the Shell sabbatical model and presents some results on its
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TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering