UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION: A CASE STUDY OF ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Universities and industry have been collaborating for over a century, but the rise of a new economy has intensified the need for better alignment of academics study programs with extremely rapid information technology (IT) evolution and practical needs of specific industry. There is an evidence that with completion of the studies in the field of IT, students gain knowledge and experience that only partial correspond to the needs of today's economy [1]. The newly graduated IT engineers should bring new knowledge and technologies to the company and immediately take over company projects. Instead, companies have to train them to be able to do expected jobs. The universities should provide optimal opportunities for students to develop employability skills through the formal learning methodologies and to ensure that students are able to articulate the skills that they have developed through their learning experiences. It is also the role of universities to ensure that their staffs have the appropriate skills to support students in this process. The study programs should be regularly reviewed and updated in order to reflect rapid changes in IT and its implementation strategy for particular country [2]. The paper analyses the experiences, problems and results (JDeveloper / ADF application developed by students) of the cooperation between Croatian software company (III d.o.o.) and the University in Pula in resolving mentioned problems.