Fang Wang, Chao Liu, Gang Li

Fang Wang

August 23, 2026

Triple Helix Theory, Private universities, Art and design, Industry-education integration community, Practical mechanism.

Industry-education integration is widely assumed to be the fix for China's shortage of application-oriented creative talent, yet art and design programs in private universities continue to struggle with partnerships that look good on paper but rarely penetrate the classroom. Between late 2023 and early 2024 we conducted fieldwork at five private institutions in Hubei Province, and the pattern was remarkably consistent: collaboration with industry seldom extended beyond guest lectures, symbolic internship bases, or equipment donations that gathered dust in storerooms. The underlying problem, we argue, is not a lack of willingness but a lack of architecture. Universities, enterprises, and government agencies still operate as separate silos, each optimizing for its own metrics—graduation rates, tax breaks, or enrollment quotas—rather than pooling resources toward a shared objective. This paper uses the Triple Helix framework not merely as a theoretical garnish but as a diagnostic tool to explore how an industry-education integration community might actually function when government, industry, and universities are forced to interact beyond ceremonial handshakes. We relied on three methods—literature review, field research, and case analysis—but the fieldwork carried most of the weight. Over twelve months we interviewed program directors, studio managers, and provincial education officials across Hubei, systematically documenting where current partnerships break down and why. Within the Triple Helix framework, we then sketched an organizational structure and operational model that assumes conflict rather than harmony among the three parties, because only institutional designs that accommodate divergent interests can survive beyond the initial grant cycle. The community model we constructed rests on four principles—mutual benefit, shared resource development, shared outcomes, and shared responsibility—but we are under no illusion that these principles self-execute. To make them operable, we designed a four-dimensional mechanism linking policy guidance, platform support, project-driven pedagogy, and cultural integration, and we tested its plausibility against the actual governance constraints we observed in Hubei. The results suggest that when government shifts from macro-manager to strategic facilitator, when enterprises move from donor to co-educator, and when universities open their curricula to genuine co-design, the "stove-top phenomenon" of fragmented collaboration can be overcome. Whether this model can be replicated outside Hubei or sustained through leadership transitions remains an open question, but it does offer a concrete starting point for private universities seeking to move from ceremonial partnership to substantive convergence.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license