The jobless rate in the United States exceeds 8% with the unemployment rate of recent college graduates in excess of 9%. Somewhat paradoxically, the number of jobs openings in the United States rose to 3.7 million in March 2012, the highest number since 2008. These seemingly contradictory statistics suggest a mismatch between the skills universities are teaching and the skills employers look for in recent graduates. At the same time, universities are struggling to cope with less robust revenue streams, and public universities also face decreasing state-sponsored support. Increasingly, universities seem to be looking toward their corporate counterparts for ideas about how to thrive in this changing market. Some schools may look for corporate influence in curriculum development to combat the aforementioned mismatch; other schools may look toward their corporate counterparts as a model for a successful global university. Despite this optimism, some worry that some kinds of university-corporation collaboration are harmful to academia and should be managed carefully as universities and corporations often have competing interests. Regardless of one’s perspective, it appears corporations may have a strong influence as education content providers adapt to stay relevant. Among those who seek to take advantage of university-corporation collaborations are those educators who run Massively Open Online Courses.

Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been lauded as a potential solution to prohibitively expensive university degrees. In MOOCs, students from around the world can sign up to take courses such as Introduction to Computer Science from University of Virginia professor David Evans, or Modern and Contemporary American Poetry from University of Pennsylvania professor Al Filreis completely for free (although these content providers may start charging a nominal fee). In these MOOCs, students often take the same tests and quizzes as the traditional, in-class university students, but instead of receiving credit toward a university degree; these students receive only a certificate of completion.

The three largest MOOC providers Udacity (led by Google Fellow Sebastian Thrun), Coursera (led by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller), and edX (a joint venture between Harvard and MIT), offer high-quality university courses at little to no cost. More than a million students from around the globe have signed up to take classes from these top-notch professors, and venture capital firms (or, in the case of edX, the universities themselves) seem eager to invest in these popular educational initiatives. Now that these cutting-edge education providers have demonstrated a successful approach, they are beginning to look at long-term business models that would generate revenue while maintaining their commitment to keeping their content affordable.

A number of ideas have been considered in the search for the best way to monetize MOOCs. One of the most promising ideas involves MOOCs providing headhunting services to companies, matching high-qualified candidates with jobs best suited for a company’s needs. Unlike traditional universities, computer-mediated MOOCs capture detailed records of students’ progress through every step of their courses, making it easier to identify the best candidates for a particular employer’s required skillset.

A recent article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses another potential method for universities and corporations to interact successfully. The article argues that universities aspiring for global prominence should look toward their corporate counterparts for guidance. Instead of relying on a “one degree fits all” strategy, universities can adapt their offerings and approaches to local markets and specific learner needs to increase visibility and student receptiveness. Secondly, the article recommends that schools dedicate a member of their senior leadership team to managing these global partnerships so that university leadership remains constantly informed as to the status of these global partnerships.

Despite many companies’ successes in global markets, there are those in academia that worry that some aspects of corporate influence are having a negative effect on the university A recent report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) recommends fifty-three guidelines for greater transparency in professor-industry relationships. The report asserts that over the last decade, professor-industry relationships, once quite straightforward, have become more complex. AAUP is concerned that with some companies offering professors stock options, monetary compensation that exceeds their university salaries, or other incentives that may cause professorial integrity and objectivity to become compromised. While many applaud the effort of the AAUP to fix these kinds of problems, some worry that guidelines are too broad, and ignore the nuanced complexity of professor-industry relationships.

Ultimately, taking into account optimism and concerns, the relationships among MOOCs, universities and corporations are a complex matter to navigate due to the competing interests involved. But as market forces drive large-scale change in higher education, it may be those education providers who are willing to make these kinds of large-scale changes and adaptations, including corporate partnerships and business models, that will continue to thrive.