It was reveals that the technical universities and industries partnership (TUIP) has no significant impact on the mode of instruction (MoI) in the context of mechanical engineering education in Ghanaian technical universities. This result contradicts previous studies that emphasise the significance of university-industry partnerships in moulding teaching practises and facilitating the integration of technology into education (e.g; Brundiers et al., 2013; Davey & Galan-Muros, 2020). The lack of a significant relationship between TUIP and MoT in this study may be attributable to factors such as limited collaboration between academia and industry or the absence of structured programmes that can effectively integrate industry input into the mode of instruction.
The hypothesis that partnerships between technical universities and industries have a significant impact on the mode of instruction is refuted. It is essential to acknowledge the research’s limitations. First, the sample size and scope are restricted to mechanical engineering students at Ghanaian technical institutions, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other disciplines or nations. Second, the study relies on student self-reported data, which may be susceptible to social desirability bias. To mitigate this issue, future research could integrate
objective measures of technical universities and industries’ partnership and mode of instruction.
Nonetheless, the study provides vital insights into the connection between technical university-industry partnerships and the mode of instruction in Ghanaian technical universities. The results indicate that additional effort is required to strengthen the collaboration between academia and industry in order to promote changes in teaching practises. This could involve establishing structured programmes, offering collaboration incentives, and enhancing communication channels between universities and industries. These insights can assist policymakers and educators in bridging the digital skills divide and improving the quality of engineering education through the use of disruptive technologies. Further research is required to identify strategies for a more effective integration of university-industry partnerships into teaching practises and to investigate the factors that contribute to the absence of a significant relationship between TUIP and MoT.