I fully agree that there is a clear deficiency in the quality of the outputs of HEIs. When you or me put a finger on where the ailment is positioned , do not be surprised if you find someone up there considering the characterization as a "personal" attack on his/her majesty.

I do not think that we live in a free world in which there is flow & exchange of ideas in a scientific approach. On the contrary, there are despots in HEIs who cannot tolerate innovative ideas that emanate from specific persons. This "polluted" atmosphere will never have a chance to progress one inch.

HEIs were established to cause "real" positive changes in the young students by providing them with high class knowledge, skills, training, and attitudes. If a HEI fails to do that, then there has to be a full-fledged tackling of the problem.

How come that HEIs keep on increasing the number of enrolled students without comprehensive study of the changing market demands? The HEI & the market are not isolated islands.

Honestly speaking, there is a mess in many countries which will, eventually, hit hard the HEIs as I foresee. The public will distrust the institutes and will simply say that we have been cheated by such places.

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your interest in the subject under study. It is certainly true that the task to increase collaborative work between academia and enterprises is not an easy one. Increasing efforts are done in the right direction, though. Notwithstanding there is still a long way to go and it is our job to be there and boost the rapprochement among all parties concerned.

The main strategy, in our opinion, is to have the best knowledge possible of the present and future workplace requirements, as well as of the society needs. Once we have that, the next step should be to adapt the teaching plans to the real needs, with special attention to those skills and aspects where students considered themselves as handicapped (after finishing their internships), with lack of preparation, reinforcing the subjects and activities that enable their acquisition.

Hopefully it is not the case that the system is standing idly by as a motionless observer, but unfortunately big changes require time and things need to be done taking small steps toward the future and convincing managers that it is the best and only option for success.

In the meanwhile, working with small groups of students, encouraging them to take part in different class activities more practically oriented and fostering an increased role of business network in the governance of the higher education institutions are the main actions undertaken to meet the final objective of better training our students.

Dear Riera

Thank you for the explanation, I think the following paper may be useful for your project,

Enhancing metacognition skills of higher education students: Methodology, statistical analysis and survey outcomes. Int. J. of Information and Decision sciences. 2015,  Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.71-98.

Regards,

Zuhair