Evaluation of university-industry cooperation in terms of regional development issues in Bartın vicinity (applied questionnaire study for forest industry sector)

The aim of this study is to present the current status of university-industry cooperation in forest industry being one of the major industries in Bartin vicinity and to build awareness among all of the stakeholders about the need for developing this cooperation. According to the literature, many studies about university-industry cooperation were carried out since 1989; however it is found that almost all of those studies dealt with only one stakeholder (either university of industry). In this thesis, not only staff members of the related department in the university but also enterprises in forest industry were surveyed and their ideas were evaluated. This study consists of three parts. In the first part literature, terminology and general information about regional development and university-industry cooperation were presented. Second part includes a questionnaire about expectations of enterprises from university-industry cooperation, their reasons not being involved to such this and whether they have any attempts for developing such cooperation etc. And also one to one interviews were made to present their ideas. Then, to determine the ideas and opinions of faculty members of Bartin University, Forest Industry Engineering Department a survey was carried out whether there are any efforts to cooperate about university-industry, how to improve the cooperation, what can be done to turn into enhancing cooperation and value-added and similar matters. In addition, one to one interviews were carried out with the delegates of Bartin Governorship, Bartin Municipality, Bartin Chamber of Commerce, Western Black Sea Development Agency and Bartin Science Industry and Technology Directorate being the important actors in development of Bartin vicinity. The last part includes the current situation and their issues of university-industry cooperation in regional planning based on Bartin vicinity in accordance with both of the stakeholders' and relevant public institutions opinions and some solutions were developed.