KTH–Scania Co-operation Strengthens Swedish Industrial Competitiveness
KTH and the Swedish heavy vehicle manufacturer Scania will expand their competence exchange programme, enhancing co-operation aimed at strengthening KTH research and education while improving Scania's access to advanced expertise.
Provision of expertise is an increasingly important core issue in industry at the same time the academic community sees the need to strengthen external links with businesses. The new cooperation agreement between KTH and Scania will promote closer dialogue on future expertise requirements and research.
Under the new agreement, Scania will increase the supply of jobs for KTH students and doctoral candidates who write theses and conduct project work in relevant fields, and will also nominate adjunct instructors for various courses of study.
“Attractive and highly qualified engineering and graduate education provide the basis for maintaining and developing automotive research in Sweden,” said Leif Östling, Scania’s President and CEO.
A steady supply of engineers is crucial to Swedish industrial competitiveness in global markets: Scania’s projections call for annual recruitment of 300 to 600 engineers with B.Sc. or M.Sc. degrees.
KTH in Stockholm represents an important recruitment base for Scania – of the company’s 10,500 employees in the Stockholm region, about 3,000 hold B.Sc. or M.Sc. engineering degrees.
“It is of great value to KTH to be able to facilitate exchanges between academia and the business community,” said KTH President Peter Gudmundson. “We’re convinced that this cooperation contributes to higher quality in research as well as higher education at KTH and improved innovative power for our partner companies.”
Kevin Billinghurst | kb2@kth.se