Real World Projects with Companies Supporting Competence Development in Higher Education

The department of business administration of Munster University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) in Germany has a long tradition in realising practice-oriented research projects in cooperation with industry. The objective of these cooperative projects is to offer students real-life experiences and to make the theoretical know-how of university lectures more tangible by using it in an actual business case setting. Students are given responsibility for project deliveries fitting the expectations of real companies in their real business. Through the projects students are encouraged to develop individual learning and problem solving competencies. In this paper, four good practice examples for university-industry cooperation integrated in the education of students in the field of marketing, specifically market analysis, will be presented. The project descriptions will highlight the different methodological approaches, focusing on their specific innovative features. The paper will evaluate the competencies students gain during their involvement in those kind of projects. To follow a valid scientific approach, the competence matrix of Erpenbeck & Heyse will be presented and used to highlight the specific competences gained by the students working on those projects.