Autonomy, competence and relatedness – the facilitators of academic engagement in education-driven university-business cooperation

Notwithstanding the growing importance of university-business cooperation (UBC), our understanding of education-driven UBC remains nebulous, so does our knowledge of facilitators of academic engagement in such cooperation. This research explores psychological facilitators underlying academic engagement with business in education-driven activities such as student mobility, curriculum design and delivery. Drawing on a self-determination theory (SDT), it investigates the factors facilitating academic engagement in these activities with a specific focus given on their UBC autonomy, competence and relatedness. Based on an extensive and wide-reaching European survey, this research shows that academic autonomy does not only play an important role in teaching and research, but also in facilitating academic engagement in education driven UBC, with UBC competence and relatedness being highly relevant too. This research contributes to the literature by shedding light on education-driven UBC and by applying SDT framework of need satisfaction in this context.