Sidebar: Examples of university initiatives

Computerworld - Here are examples of steps that schools have taken to help meet the IT skills requirements of the private sector:
MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Before each semester, 30 companies that sponsor MIT's Center for eBusiness, including Intel, Cisco Systems Inc. and MasterCard, submit technology/business projects for student teams to work on. IT execs are also brought on campus to give presentations on IT/business problems they've resolved and discuss their approaches with students.
Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, Columbus A majority of the 1,000-plus students who are involved in computer-science-related studies have participated in internships and co-op programs with Ohio employers over the past three years.
McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin Advisory groups made up of business and IT executives help shape the IT/business curriculum for the school. Recent feedback from the group led to the creation of courses in marketing information systems and finance and technology.
Babson College, Wellesley, Mass. The Center for Information Management Studies is a forum for Boston-area IT managers, who attend half-day seminars on IT management issues. Sponsors of the program, which typically draws 90 IT managers to each session, include Allmerica Financial, Allied Domecq and Fidelity Investments. Recent topics include business conditions that affect IT, security and privacy, and Web services.
Temple University's Fox School of Business and Management, Philadelphia In addition to bringing in industry speakers to discuss problems they've resolved in a specific vertical industry, the school holds breakfast meetings four times a year at which CIOs discuss contemporary topics such as enterprise integration.
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J. It has recently established industry-specific areas of concentrated study, such as IT in pharmaceuticals and IT in financial services. Embedded in the curriculum is a focus on managing multinational IT operations.