Reflecting on a Triple Helix Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Postgraduate Course Development

Skills provision within MSc programmes has historically been delivered by academic teaching staff with limited input from external partners. However, courses which foster knowledge exchange between university academics and industry professionals, are more relevant. Despite postgraduate student numbers increasing to record levels, here in the UK, there is a widely accepted “graduate skills gap”. Students that have obtained sought after transferable skills or have undertaken industry-relevant experience will likely be more valued by employers. Working and learning are no longer considered as two distinct entities and when real-world perspectives are brought into teaching, they enrich student learning. As educators, we need to support the employability of our students by including training from both within and outside academia. Partnering with third-space industry professionals to create authentic experiences and assessment, better support students in their future careers. In this paper, we reflect on our transdisciplinary triple helix approach which involves expert university academics, professional industrial partners, and training by an accredited government body. This model was used to create an optional post-graduate in vivo research skills course which was offered to students for the first time this year. This course embeds two authentic real-world assessments which have been developed with industry partners. Students can obtain an additional accredited qualification in the field of animal experimentation since the UK Home Office personal licence certification is part of the assessment. In addition, students take part in an experimental design assessment which was created by an industry expert and is highly applicable in animal research. Not only do these assessments reinforce the relevance of the work-based activities but align education outcomes with employer expectations. Here, we reflect on our personal experience of using transdisciplinary collaboration to foster authentic work-related learning and assessment. We examine our perceived achievements and challenges, and our perception of transdisciplinary learning on the student experience. We believe that this critical self-examination allows us to exchange our knowledge and experience with other academics wishing to incorporate a similar triple helix approach.