Partnership management can enhance universities' project-based learning

UNIVERSITIES today face the task of preparing their students for the challenges of the future. As the scale and complexity of challenges facing the world today increase, the need for universities to produce students who can adapt and deal with complex problems nimbly and creatively, and who are able to develop integrated solutions with knowledge drawn from a wide range of disciplines has become more urgent.

Education Minister Lawrence Wong echoed this sentiment at an event late last year, titled "After the Pandemic: Reimagining Education", when he said: "Single specialisation is still important, but I think a lot of the research shows that the more exposure a student has, in terms of different disciplines, it really encourages adaptability and agility of mindsets... In the real world, many, many issues are complex and cut across different disciplines that cannot be solved by an engineer alone or an architect, or a scientist. It really needs different skill sets to come together."

To inculcate the learning of skills for the future so that students are future-ready, universities today are increasingly incorporating project-based learning (PBL) in their teaching pedagogies. PBL prepares students for the challenges of the real world by allowing them to learn theory in the classroom and then apply what they have learned in the field. This approach of "learning through doing" allows students to participate in the solving of a wide array of multi-disciplinary business and societal challenges facing organisations while at the same time solidifying their own knowledge.