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Abstract
The Australian higher education sector is ranked as the third largest in the world, accounting for 6.2% of the world's total, based on the number of international students. Australian SMEs collectively represent over 99% of all enterprises, contribute 57% to the gross domestic product, actively engage in innovative activities and provide over 67% of total employment. However, a limited number of SMEs source their ideas or information from the higher education sector. Australia has one of the lowest levels of collaboration between industry and universities in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This paper seeks to address the gap in the academic literature by providing a review of the SME and higher education sectors and by exploring collaboration and engagement options for these crucial sectors.
Introduction
The SME sector does not exist in isolation, as it forms a significant part of a broader economy. Australia has shown continuous economic growth for the past 27 years (Australian Budget, 2018). In total, there were over 2.3 million active businesses operating in Australia, showing the fifth consecutive year of increase in numbers. The least common employing business entities (0.4%) were large businesses with more than 200 employees giving the SMEs the dominant share. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2016-2017 financial year, out of 318,000 businesses which were involved in innovative business activities, 99% were classified as SMEs (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). However, only 3% of SMEs sourced their ideas or information from the higher/tertiary education sector. Australia is lagging behind other economies on levels of collaboration between business sectors and higher education providers. In 2015, the National Innovation and Science Agenda was launched which requires universities to demonstrate how the research output is affecting the economic, social and environmental impacts.
According to the latest report published by Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) (2018), the Australian higher education sector had 176 registered higher education providers, educated more than 1,4 million students, provided employment to 120,000 full-time equivalent staff and contributed AUD$140 billion to the Australian economy. There are 43 universities in Australia which continue to have the largest market share, with 91 per cent of students choosing them for their education needs. Australian enrolments in this sector are dominated...