The commitment of academia with the external environment, namely the industry, is in many countries, such as Portugal, practically inexistent. Within the Portuguese higher education dual system, polytechnic institutions still offer the best scenario in industry-academia relations, although resuming almost exclusively to the placement of students in an industrial environment. This scenario is still insufficient to accomplish the task of developing employable graduates with advanced technical skills and practical know-how.
The Engineering School of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra has recently proposed a new Master’s Programme in Embedded Systems with the peculiarity of being build in a close partnership with four local companies, which includes programme definition, management, quality assurance, lecturing, financing, workspace preparation, and students support.