Bridging the Gap between Academia and Business

For more than 25 years, SAS has partnered with colleges and universities around the world to provide students, faculty and staff with the skills and knowledge they need to become tomorrow's leaders.

The SAS Academic Initiative is designed to promote the use of SAS in Business School and University curriculum.

This includes partnering with schools in areas such as:

• Curriculum Development and Integration
• Case Studies
• Research Development
• Thought Leadership
• International Perspective
• Work Placement Programs
• Publicity of the program

Curriculum Development and Integration

Let SAS help you develop a curriculum that speaks to the way business is conducted today. Through our curriculum development program, SAS helps business school and university faculty members develop and integrate courses that are relevant to the times in which they are taught.

By working closely with staff members to address the goals and needs of that specific curriculum and by building upon SAS' expertise the result is a more industry-focused way of thinking.

Case Studies

Taking the information that students learn in the classroom and applying it to the workplace can be an obstacle that only real-world applications can overcome.

SAS welcomes the opportunity to work with your university to develop case study models that demonstrate factors contributing to the success of a particular industry or sector, be it private or public, resulting from its use of SAS software.

An example of such case is Tamagawa University in Japan, where the customer is incorporating SAS Strategic Performance Management software within the Department of Engineering course: http://www.sas.com/success/tamagawa.html

Research Development

Through this program, faculty and/or campus research centres can partner with SAS on one or more emerging topics to solve a question or find a solution.

The Academic Initiative license will cover all research centres usage of SAS in non-commercial research. SAS statistical and analytical strengths can be effectively utilised in all non-commercial research centres.

Further, specific SAS business solutions (i.e. Financial Management Solutions or SAS Risk Management solutions) can be used in centres of specific industry research (i.e. Research centre for Finance and Securities / research centre for International Accounting and Finance)

Thought Leadership

SAS offers industry experts from various disciplines (e.g. Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management and Strategic Performance Management) to demonstrate real-world knowledge of how companies are using solution technology to advance the ways they do business.

Whether it is a guest lecture or daylong seminars, both professors and students have the opportunity to engage in career-specific dialogues with SAS professionals in their prospective areas of concentration.

Thought leadership can also be in the form of collaboration between University Professors and SAS to write supplement textbooks on such topics as data mining or customer relationship management. SAS Books By Users can be found at: http://www.sas.com/apps/pubscat/bbu.jsp

In addition, faculty members can continue their professional education by sharing their knowledge of the marketplace with the executives actively working through the bettermanagement.com portal: http://www.bettermanagement.com

International Perspective

The SAS International Perspective offers the opportunity for those Universities and students with programs abroad to see first hand what it is like to work for a multinational company based in the United States.

Faculty and students have the pleasure of visiting those SAS offices located while travelling and talking with executives and managers who work in either a remote and/or regional office to get a feel of working overseas.

The SAS Australia office will centrally coordinate the visits and ensure both professors and students receive the necessary support at the visiting site.

The alternative is to participate in SAS Forum International Student Ambassador Program or Academic Business School stream. http://support.sas.com/events/sasforuminternational/student_comp.html

The Student Ambassador Program is an opportunity where students may present their research results to a worldwide audience of SAS business customers. Alternatively, the Academic Business School stream where business school professors from all over the globe present unique teaching and research initiatives.

The opportunities give students exposure to present to a full audience of SAS business customers at one of the largest SAS worldwide conferences. Five students presented at the conference in Vienna 2003 where over 2000 SAS customers from all industries gathered for a first hand look at the SAS Business Intelligence Technology. Both streams enabled the information exchange between Academia and Business.

SAS Forum International 2004 will take place in Copenhagen 15th–17th June. http://support.sas.com/events/sasforuminternational/index.html

Work Placement Program

We believe learning in SAS will be best assisted by actual practice in a business environment. Work Experience or Internships can be organised at SAS or at SAS partnering companies.

We will work with your organisation to determine the structure of the Work Placement Program and implementation.

Publicity of the program

Building a highly effective MBA or undergraduate program must be accompanied by effective publicity to highlight the program to the public. SAS has a proven process “Joint Marketing Program” where we ensure:

• Positive exposure
• External Recognition
• Outside PR / Journal publication opportunities

For information on how to be part of the SAS Australia & New Zealand Academic Initiative, please email our Academic Team or call (02) 9428 0452