LERU Paper “Student Entrepreneurship At

LERU Paper “Student entrepreneurship atresearch intensive universities: from aperipheral activity towards a newmainstream”Sheron ShamuiliaEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre

LERU paper – research questions & focus Our society increasingly needs entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. However: What does this precisely entail? Why are research-intensive universities ideally positioned to stimulate theemergence of these attitudes and skills? How can student entrepreneurship be supported and organized? The paper tries to answer this by providing five recommendations.

Recommendation 1 – proactively develop entrepreneurial skills Universities are the training ground of tomorrow’s leaders and should proactively equipstudents with an entrepreneurial attitude and skillset. In this context, academic staff paly a crucial role. In order to be successful, ongoing commitment to invest in, and support, studententrepreneurship education activities is required (both in terms of leadership as well as directfunding). Universities need to pay attention in setting up proper assessment processes for monitoringprogress of these activities.

Recommendation 2 – interdisciplinary student work and project-based learning Societal & economic challenges are complex, and requires a multi-disciplinary team totackle Proactively develop new structures and create appropriate settings such as projectbased learning environments where students can collaborate and solve problems withpeers from different backgrounds.Picture taken from: studenten-opuitvinderspad

Recommendation 3 – reframing meaning of entrepreneurship Coherent culture and understanding with respect to entrepreneurship Reframing in way that it is discipline specific, making it relevant to all students Distinction between developing entrepreneurial attitude more broadly (cf. relevant to allstudents) and the cultivation of specific entrepreneurship skills (cf. venture creation).

Recommendation 4 – embrace bottom up entrepreneurial activities Universities have a threefold mission, where the interplay generates a culture and afertile ground for the growth of bottom-up activities. Take lead and create permissive institutional environments for this (e.g. providingcommunication infrastructure). Examples of such initiatives are IusStart and Techstart (from LCIE), being legal and technologyadvise delivered by students under the supervision of PhD students and/or experts from thenetwork. Another one is the PiP. Last but not least, funding is also made available forentrepreneurial teams via an (LCIE) innovation fund.MissionResearch

Recommendation 5 – take lead with regard to entrepreneurial education in theirentrepreneurial ecosystem. Many studies have demonstrated the important economic contribution of universities to theirregion In order to truly create knowledge economy, universities must become key players inshaping the economic landscape. Strong partnerships with local, regional, national and international players in what willbecome an entrepreneurial ecosystem. How? By leveraging their network of alumni, Being open to entrepreneurial communities and ecosystems that already exist, and Adopting an inclusive approach to avoid “university islands”

LERU paper – recommendations summary (both within and outside theuniversity)1. Research-intensive universities need to pro-actively develop the entrepreneurial2.3.4.5.skills and attitudes of their students and staff.Interdisciplinary student work and project-based learning are essentialcomponents of successful entrepreneurship education.For entrepreneurship to thrive at universities and to make it accessible and relevantto all students, its meaning needs to be reframed.Research-intensive universities need to embrace bottom-up initiatives that help tofoster an entrepreneurial culture.Universities need to be open and take the lead with regard to entrepreneurshipeducation in their entrepreneurial ecosystems.Paper and other great examples are available eripheral-activity-towards-a-new-mainstream

Thank you!

Research-intensive universities need to pro-actively develop the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes of their students and staff. 2. Interdisciplinary student work and project-based learning are essential components of successful entrepreneurship education. 3. For entrepreneurship to thrive at universities and to make it accessible and relevant