There is a demand for increased cooperation between higher education institutes and surrounding society, and different frameworks for such cooperation have been developed. University West in Sweden has a profile calledwork-integrated learning which could be regarded as a systematical approach for combining theory and practice.Actually work-integrated learning has become an ideologyfor the University which permeates all activities, i.e. education, research and cooperation with surrounding society. This article is a review, explaining and exemplifying our approach. We will also discuss strategies and challenges for bringing the relationship between theory and practice into a prospering marriage.