Students’ perception on University industry linkages in contributing towards education employability and innovation: a case study of Dar es Salaam and Ardhi Universities

The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception of students to the effects of University Industrial Linkages on the students’ employability linkages. The study used a sample of 250 students from different universities’ schools and colleges such as College of Electronics and Technology, College of Social Science, College of Natural and Applied Science, University of Dar es Salaam Business School and School of Environment and Technology Science. The research approach deployed was descriptive so as to collect primary data because the population was large. The specific tool used for the data collection was the Questionnaire. The research strategy used was a qualitative survey study using inductive design. The findings of the study on the students’ perception to the linkages which contribute towards the education employability were based on three linkages. The first linkage was Service consulting. Here, in totality, the average mean with the highest ranked mean was “Joint projects between students and industry (for example recruitment events) has a positive effect on student employability”. This was followed by: “Industry assistance in modernizing and developing university curriculum and programs in line with industrial needs increases student employability”. The second linkage was Education/ training. “Practical training of students in industry premises to be exposed to practical working conditions improves the employability”. The third linkage was Research activities. “Joint industry-university research increases student employability”.The recommendations of the study are as follows; For Students, Education/ Training linkage can be more effective to the students’ employability if necessary changes are to be improved such as introducing industrial guest lecturer. For Academia, Universities should be allowed to participate in the research and make use of the experiment equipments so as to get familiar with the working environment. For Industries, Service/ Consultation linkage shows that Industries should aid universities in modernizing curriculum for the students’ better education and eventually become employable.