TenU Hosts Entrepreneurial Mindset: five key insights

In the recently launched Industrial Strategy, the UK Government made a commitment to place entrepreneurship and innovation at the heart of the UK's economic renewal. This emphasis is echoed globally, with governments around the world placing greater focus on the potential for university innovation to support positive social and economic outcomes. However, in many institutions, a ‘publish or perish’ culture still prevails, and research commercialisation is not always prioritised. 

TenU asked a panel of experts what else can universities do to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset? Drawing on global best practice, the discussion considered which conditions are most likely to promote entrepreneurship in universities. 

TenU member Catherine Headley, CEO Manchester Innovation Factory, chaired the panel featuring: 

• Paul Cheek, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management & Senior Advisor and Former Executive Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship 

• Kirsty Collinge, Head of Research Strategy, University of Edinburgh 

• Koenraad Debackere, Professor of Economics and Management of Technology and Innovation at KU Leuven. 

• Linda Koschier, Head of Entrepreneurship, UNSW Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering 

The webinar is also available as a podcast created in collaboration with The Next Leap:

Here are five key insights from the discussion: 

        1. Structure is essential in cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset  

There was consensus across the panel that an entrepreneurial mindset is not something that emerges spontaneously – rather it is crucial for universities to design and develop a structured approach to entrepreneurship. As Paul put it, ‘entrepreneurship without structure…feels like the Wild West’.  

We heard several examples of how universities create structures that encourage both students and academics to take an entrepreneurial approach: 

• Linda noted that at UNSW there had been limited engagement from the engineering faculty with the central entrepreneurship programme, so steps have been taken to create a bespoke approach for the engineering faculty such as a new fellowship programme.  

• Koenraad explained KU Leuven’s approach, which encourages the integration of entrepreneurship across all faculties, including designing ‘Kick House’ as a physical focal point in the centre of the city for entrepreneurship activities. 

• Paul described the deliberate strategy at MIT to develop a consistent language and approach to entrepreneurship, which is applied across different faculties and programmes, reinforcing core messages. 

       2. Designing the right incentives is key to overcoming time constraints 

Connected to the structures put in place are the incentives that are generated within a university to encourage entrepreneurship. This is something that the University of Edinburgh has given a lot of thought to during the process of developing its Innovation Career Pathway. Kirsty explained how the pathway, along with tools such as the Innovation Competency Framework, clearly communicates that entrepreneurship is not only valued at the university but that it can also actively contribute to career progression. Similarly, Linda explained that at UNSW academics can apply to do paid outside work for up to 52 days per year as long as potential conflicts of interest are managed, which mitigates some of the risk associated with pursuing entrepreneurial activities.   

In spite of the numerous measures in place to promote entrepreneurship at the universities represented on the panel, it was noted that time remains a key barrier to entrepreneurship. At MIT this issue has been addressed by integrating entrepreneurship into programme design. For example, co-curricular activities that provide real world experience are offered, and it is a requirement that these are completed in order to earn a certificate upon graduation. 

       3. Top-down university leadership support sends the right signals 

There was agreement across the panel that leadership demonstrating support for entrepreneurship is fundamental. Paul noted that senior leadership at MIT has communicated publicly that, alongside teaching and research, entrepreneurship is one of the three ‘legs’ of the MIT ‘stool’.  

Kirsty noted that Edinburgh’s goal is ‘creating an institutional culture where we’re signalling at the highest level of the university: we back people to do innovation careers as academics’. As part of this culture, the inevitability of failure is discussed, with senior leadership publicly communicating that they understand failure to be an important part of the innovation process. 

Linda noted that entrepreneurial mindset will continue to be of paramount importance to university leaders, as universities are increasingly developing strategies centred on generating societal impact. In order to achieve this impact, universities across the globe will need to become more entrepreneurial. 

       4. There are many sources of inspiration for an entrepreneurial culture 

Koenraad explained that inspiration is at the centre of KU Leuven’s philosophy regarding entrepreneurial mindset: ‘inspire your students and get inspired by the students’. This plays out in practice by widespread support for entrepreneurial activities – even those students that aren’t themselves pursuing entrepreneurship offer their support to help others become entrepreneurs. This culture has resulted in the diffusion of the entrepreneurial mindset throughout the organisation.  

Paul also highlighted the emphasis that MIT places on inspiration, frequently inviting alumni back to MIT to share their success stories with current students. 

       5. It is possible to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in any university 

There were several questions from the audience about how universities where entrepreneurial culture has not yet matured can support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. Panel members were reassuring on this point, explaining their own experiences of sharing learning and tools with other universities across the World – for example Edinburgh’s Innovation Career Pathway has already been shared with several other universities globally. Koenraad’s advice was that an entrepreneurial culture can be developed by taking consistent steps over time. Paul shared his confidence that, by following a structured process and progressing step-by-step along a sequential but non-linear path, ‘anybody can be an entrepreneur’.