Industry/Community Advisory Panel (ICAP)

BACKGROUND

Conventionally, universities were considered as ivory towers whose members (faculty and students) were less concerned with daily life in the actual world. That limits the potential impact of the knowledge and talents nurtured by the universities. The universities of today can no longer confine themselves solely to the creation of new knowledge without considering the stakeholders. In fact, Universities must engage more intimately and meaningfully with both industries and communities to remain relevant and extend positive impact to both groups.

The formation of the Industry/Community Advisory Panel (ICAP) within respective schools and Centres in USM is in direct compliance with the university’s overall efforts taken towards building a tighter working relationship with industry, companies and the community. The presence of ICAPs is timely and useful for enhancing institutional and national competitiveness. ICAP comprises selected academic staff, senior and technical executives from the private sector and well-respected leaders from the community. The ICAP are platform that serve as forum and shall cover the following topics (but not limited to); curriculum, training programs, solutions for coordinating industry/community expectations and relevance, best practices for industry engagement, and practical approaches to address current issues and other matters of concern to all the parties involved.


OBJECTIVES

The principal objectives of an ICAP are to enhance collaboration and engagement between a School or Centre with the relevant industry/community in areas of teaching and learning, consultancy services, continuing education, R&D, shared facilities, and joint community projects and programmes.