The entrepreneurial university
The ambition at Linnaeus University is to stand out at a national and international level through the way of working with entrepreneurship and be able to present the highest proportion of entrepreneurs among the students.
We believe that the entrepreneurial culture is developed by attitudes and competencies as a complement to the traditional literacy skills, which makes our students further attractive in the labor market. The entrepreneurial competence will in short, make a powerful tool to gain other knowledge and skills to increase the student's competitiveness on the market.
Training programs in entrepreneurship aims to:
• develop students' entrepreneurial spirit
• develop the student's ability to identify and exploit opportunities
• increase the knowledge of what it takes to start and grow a business
• adaptation for each faculty / department or program
It is mainly about the overall, generic skills to make students:
• more creative / innovative, active, motivated
• more autonomous and risk-tolerant
• more business oriented
• more willing to challenge the habitual indulgence and habitual thinking
• more trained see opportunities
• more confidence in their ability to make a difference in different situations
About the project
The mission is to create an entrepreneurial culture with students, teachers and researchers who are motivated and able to be active creators in a global knowledge economy characterized by high dynamics, high complexity and high uncertainty.
With the project "The entrepreneurial university", Linnaeus University is profiling itself by the way of working with entrepreneurship in education. The goal is that all students at the university programs, regardless of topic, should have met and been inspired by the entrepreneurial approach and given tools to go from thoughts to action to implement their ideas. The project "The entrepreneurial university" includes activities from individual workshops on the subject to comprehensive credit courses at different levels. The project, that involves the entire university, is ongoing from 2012 to 2014 and then entrepreneurial thinking should be integrated into regular activities. Funding partners for the project is Linnaeus University, EU structural funds, the Regional Council of Kalmar, Region Kronoberg, Växjö and Kalmar municipalities and Tillväxtverket in Sweden.
"The entrepreneurial university" is one of several ways for Linnaeus University to realize its core values of knowledge, creative thinking, and benefit to reach our promises about the university that will open your mind to new opportunities.
The project generates more ideas which will have impact of increased business opportunities and an inflow to actors like Science Parks, Enterprise Centers and business creators.
To increase the proportion of women entrepreneurs in the region, the Linnaeus University also have a project called "Entrepreneurial Linnaeus Women" with guest lectures, networking and training on gender issues related to entrepreneurship and enterprise. This project is supported by Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket).
Importance of the entrepreneurial university
The entrepreneurial university aims to take students from the role of an passive object to an action creative subject, or in pragmatic terms, to give students the skills to both generate ideas for change and to implement them.
To achieve this, the project strives to work with involving methods, which better impact personal development and deeper layers of the personality. This is put into practice through theoretical lectures and creative workshops with the entrepreneurial approach in focus.
The project also highlights cooperation with industry by involving entrepreneurial people with their everyday life outside the university. The entrepreneurial university will involve "visiting lecturers" as the concept is promoted by many external forces involved in participating as inspirers and guest speakers.
Toolbox
The project "The entrepreneurial university" has resulted in a "toolbox" - a toolbox in which the teaching materials collected and produced during the project period have been sorted and made available.
The Toolbox contains searchable materials, links and examples of cooperation, and is aimed at internal experience between researchers and teachers in the area of entrepreneurship. This Toolbox is the foundation of an educational platform for Entrepreneurship at Linnaeus University. This Toolbox is a long-term quality assurance for our broad educational effort, maintenance and developing of our teaching, and to ensure that all efforts are based on a scientific foundation and proven experience.
Toolbox for entrepreneurship education
In this toolbox you will find educational and teaching materials collected and produced during the project "The entrepreneurial university".
The aim is that you as a teacher will be able to search for:
• Theoretical basis (articles and literature)
• Material from the media and other sources
• Guest speakers / examples
• Practical exercises
• Examinations
We have also chosen to sort the material in the following modules, in accordance with the pedagogical approach that we have developed during the project:
• Introduction to the topic / concept
• Opportunities
• Various forms of entrepreneurship
• Approach / processes
• The person / team / Network
• Creativity
• Context / market
• Business Modelling
• Business plan (demo)
• Entrepreneurial Leadership / Organization
• The entrepreneurial economy
• Innovation