The good collaboration between universities and enterprises can help undergraduates prepare for the future career. Also, this benign interaction accelerates the process of turning scientific and technological research into practical applications.

Given its vital situation, global governments have paid great attention to university business collaboration, so have ISO and the UN. China has submitted the proposal of ISO/TS 44006, Collaborative business relationship management —Guidelines for university business collaboration, to ISO/TC 286, Collaborative business relationship management, which was approved on February 13, 2022. A new working group ISO/TC 286/WG 4, University business collaboration, will be set up, with Chinese expert serving as the convener.

The Guidelines are expected to facilitate the sustainable development of university business collaboration, echoing the SDG 4 (Quality education), SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the goals).

China has been working on improving the relationships between universities and enterprises for a long time. In the past two years, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) devoted great efforts to the standard proposal with the strong support of SAC. Ultimately, the proposal was passed by ISO with a high approval rate and 10 countries promised to nominate experts to participate in developing the standard.

The Guidelines will be the first international technical specification for university business collaboration. Meanwhile, it has been the first time for China to be approved to lead the development of an ISO standard in this field, since ISO/TC 286 was set up in 2013.

With global participation, China will steadily push forward international standardization work in the field of university business collaboration by developing ISO/TS 44006.