Corporate universities: an emerging actor in higher education in Spain?

• Published in: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 269 - 284
• Main Authors: Baladrón Pazos, Antonio J., Correyero Ruiz, Beatriz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 15.07.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business education; Colleges & universities; Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences; Computer Science; Computers and Education; Educational Needs; Educational Technology; Higher Education; Humanities; Industrial Training; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Knowledge management; Law; Statistics for Social Sciences; Training; Universities; Spain; corporate universities; future; universidades corporativas; España; futuro; higher education; educación superior; sociedad del conocimiento; knowledge society; Spain
• ISSN: 1698-580X; 2365-9440; 1698-580X
• DOI: 10.7238/rusc.v10i2.1439

Corporate universities are a growing phenomenon in present-day Spanish society. Corporations increasingly depend on knowledge and, as an alternative to the gaps identified in traditional education, they are creating and strengthening these institutions in order to endow themselves with a type of training that is consistent with their needs, objectives and strategies. This article presents the main results of a study whose aim was to forecast the future role of corporate universities in Spain, a little-studied reality despite its increasing importance. The study objectives were to identify certain aspects of corporate universities’ future evolution (their role in Spanish society, their organisational changes and the challenges posed by ICTs) and to perform a prospective analysis of their relationships with traditional universities (comparative strengths and weaknesses, and future means of collaboration). The research technique used was the Delphi method, applied to a panel of experts formed by the heads of Spanish corporate universities. Besides collecting data on the above-mentioned study objectives, the results confirmed the important role that corporate universities would play in training and knowledge management within the framework of Spanish higher education, even though the participating specialists believed that they would become a complement rather than a direct competitor to traditional universities.