Educating for disruption: The case for critical entrepreneurship

At UIIN, our work is guided by critical questions that challenge the conventional approach to higher education. Questions like:

Can universities we contribute to developing solutions to the wicked problems that humanity faces, or merely generate short-term fixes for the next generation to grapple with?

Can we imagine a university education that uplifts communities rather than extracts?

Drawing on a case from the UIIN conference and the work of higher education sociologist Mariya Ivancheva, this article explores a different route to traditional entrepreneurial education, one that resists the commodification of knowledge and extractive collaborations between universities and other societal actors.

What do we mean by entrepreneurial education?

Traditionally, entrepreneurial education is a signifier of the act of providing students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage opening a new for- or non-profit organisation, the latter approach also called social entrepreneurship². As part of UIIN’s research in the Horizon initiative “Entrepreneurial & Innovative Universities Acceleration”, the educational, and more specifically, the entrepreneurial role of universities in “fostering student entrepreneurial mindset and skillsets to enable them to tackle societal problems” has emerged as a priority area¹. 

Detractors of entrepreneurial education challenge the assumption that entrepreneurship is inherently positive.

Rather, they insist that it perpetuates an “infinite‐growth” mindset, celebrating scale, disruption, and the very rapid value extraction which underpins wicked challenges like ecological degradation and social inequity³. The critical entrepreneurship camp suggests that if drastically reimagined, entrepreneurial education can give students the tools to build resilient and purpose-driven alternatives, such as community wealth cooperatives, and regenerative supply chains. One example is barefoot entrepreneuring, which offers a counter to the traditional notion of maximising profit whilst taking the least possible risk⁴.

In a similar way, ecopreneurship focuses on creating businesses that either address environmental problems or operate with a strong commitment to sustainability⁵.

Let’s explore such a case of critical entrepreneurship that centres the recognition and participation of diverse stakeholders in project design and decision-making.

A forward-looking example from the UIIN Community

A relevant example from the 2025 UIIN Conference highlights how to step away from traditional entrepreneurship and towards more valorisation of knowledge for regional equity and social change, within the tapestry of advanced capitalism. The case comes from Universidad de La Sabana, in the Sabana Centro province in Colombia, and shows how social justice-oriented problem-based learning can break the mould of market-oriented entrepreneurial education. This pioneering initiative uses a quadruple helix approach to address challenges in the region, focusing on regional competitiveness and quality of life for its residents. Here’s how it worked:

• 13 regional partners collaborated in a series of discussions.
• Over 100 researcher–stakeholder meetings were held to co-design proposals.
• 29 regional challenges were addressed, covering areas such as: Local biodiversity conservation, sustainable urban planning, and Food systems resilience.
• 10 winning projects each received €27,000 for a two-year implementation.

Although early days, the initiative has already strengthened Universidad de La Sabana’s quadruple-helix alliances, embedded student learning in place-based, problem-solving activities. It has also set the stage for peer-reviewed publications, community education tools, and tangible models of social knowledge appropriation. The rigorous and intentional utilisation of action research, participatory design and cross-disciplinary collaboration, ensures that each project was shaped by community priorities and prioritised local agency and ownership.  

Such cases reveal that entrepreneurial education is not a monolith. At the same time, they reveal a contradiction at the heart of social entrepreneurship, implying a harmony between social missions and profit. The reality is that mission-driven businesses face challenges in achieving financial sustainability without diluting their social mission.⁷     

Towards a more nuanced education, be it entrepreneurial or not 

From the Sabana Centro case, we can see how principles of justice-oriented education can ground universities socially and how such a change in education demands more than curricular shifts; it requires an institutional shift towards justice-oriented pedagogical design, one that is inclusive of multiple perspectives and epistemologies. In her book, “The Alternative University: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela”, Mariya Ivancheva explores the institutionalisation of such holistic education. She uses the example of the Bolivarian University of Venezuela (UBV), an ambitious socialist experiment from the educational reforms under late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavéz⁶. 

The socialist experiment at UBV prompted me to question alternative approaches to community engagement, collective knowledge production, and student and faculty evaluations that transgress modern Western knowledge forms, which serve to advance capitalism.

Mariya Ivancheva

The Bolivarian University model provides a framework that covers the purpose of education, access to knowledge, and the methods of knowledge creation. Below, we will examine each of them more closely:  

1. Catalyst for social change: Fundamentally, the UBV model was designed to be a catalyst for wider social change within Venezuela and to offer an alternative to market-driven, privatised university education models. The inclusion of local communities and civil society in the Sabana Centro’s case mirrors UBV’s aim for national and global integration, using the university as a solidarity hub that connects marginalised populations to labour markets, civic networks, and transnational knowledge exchange.
2. Universal access to knowledge: A big success of this model is its Misión Sucre social programme, which opens the university’s doors to low-income individuals, those traditionally excluded from universities. This initiative provides low-income students with access to labour markets. In the case of Sabana Centro, participatory design deliberately lowers barriers to the participation of knowledge co-creation and distribution, mirroring a similar commitment, ensuring that learning and innovation opportunities reach historically marginalised populations. 
3. Decolonisation of knowledge: UBV sought to decolonise the curriculum and knowledge production, moving away from the Eurocentric academic epistemology and traditional delineation of disciplines. This is also echoed in the Sabana Centro case, which focuses on local and Indigenous knowledges, and prioritises them alongside academic expertise.  Such centring of community voices in project design attempts to halt the postcolonial legacy of the inferiority of Indigenous knowledge.
4. Applied fieldwork and community engagement: Another core component of the UBV model, also present in the Sabana Centro case, was the applied fieldwork with lower-income communities and collective community-organising initiatives. This aimed to empower the locals to understand their knowledge as key to social transformation, integrating academic learning with real-world problems and embedding students and faculty in collective social transformation.
5. Challenging hierarchies and fostering egalitarianism: The UBV model pledges to challenge vertical power dynamics in the classroom, such as those between teachers and students, and promote horizontal, non-oppressive relations based on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy⁸. In the Sabana Centro’s case, the teams’ combined expertise in social sciences and community knowledge enabled holistic solutions, contrasting conventional innovation models that prioritise technical expertise over social science insights.  

Context matters 

When universities, like Universidad de La Sabana, back these principles with dedicated funding and administrative support, they can create horizontal learning environments and radical educational imaginaries rooted in social change. However, the type of university affects the extent of its connection to the local and national agenda. The Universidad de La Sabana is an elite private university that, through partnerships with industry in quadruple-helix projects, targets economically advantaged students, with 4% international enrolment⁹ and has strong graduate employability, ranked #15 regionally for employer reputation¹⁰.

On the other hand,  UBV, which aims to provide free education, is facing multiple barriers; due to the ongoing economic crisis, students are forced to abandon their studies and join the workforce, resulting in a dropout rate of nearly 50%¹¹. As for the graduates, they often face hiring bias from employers who are sceptical of the university’s academic rigour¹².

As we reflect on these examples, it’s important to recognise the potential of educational models like UBV’s. In the words of Mariya Ivancheva, the UBV experiment serves as a “valuable confirmation” that working toward these goals, “not only in micro-collectives, but also on a mass scale”, is indeed doable. However, we also must remember who universities are meant to serve, and who can afford to attend them. Once we understand students and their needs, we can continue to interrogate the question at the core of higher education: Are we training students to disrupt inequitable systems or to simply fit into them?

References

1. Rusaite, R., Kortesidou, D., Jaber, S. (2023). Common challenges and solutions to becoming more entrepreneurial and innovative HEIs: Final Analysis Report. Entrepreneurial & Innovative Universities Acceleration Programme
2. United Nations Conference On Trade And Development. (2005). Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: The Empretec Showcase. https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/webiteteb20043_en.pdf
3. Essers, C., Dey, P., Tedmanson, D., & Verduyn, K. (Eds.). (2017). Critical perspectives on entrepreneurship: Challenging dominant discourses. Taylor & Francis. pp.19
4. Imas, J. M., Wilson, N., & Weston, A. (2012). Barefoot entrepreneurs. Organization, 19(5), 563-585.
5. Gunawan, A. A. (2012). Ecopreneurship concept and its barriers: A literature review
6. Ivancheva, M. P. (2023). The Alternative University: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela. Stanford University Press
7. Singathurai, S., Selladurai, M., Madhuri, A., Pal, S., & Sharma, A. (2024). Sustainable Social Entrepreneurship: Balancing Profitability with Environmental and Social Impact
8. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. P. (2014). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 30th anniversary edition). Bloomsbury Publishing. 
9. Times Higher Education. (n.d.). World University Rankings: Universidad de La Sabana. Retrieved July 16, 2025, from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/university-la-sabana
10. Universidad de La Sabana. (2025, June 23). Universidad de La Sabana asciende al top 40 de las mejores de América Latina y el Caribe . https://www.unisabana.edu.co/noticias/sello-sabana/universidad-de-la-sabana-asciende-al-top-40-de-las-mejores-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe
11. Hernáiz, H. P., Smilde, D. (2020). Venezuela’s higher education crisis worsens. Venezuelan Politics and Human Rights Blog. From https://www.venezuelablog.org/venezuelas-higher-education-crisis-worsens/
12. Podur., J. (2004). Venezuela’s Revolutionary University. Venezuela Analysis. From https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/707/

Ready for more?

In the podcast with Susan Marie, the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Global Engagement at Murdoch University, she shares how the university is working closely with Indigenous communities to create meaningful change. 

Or check out our brief, The role of universities in building regenerative economies, where we explore the role of universities in developing this economic approach..

Déspina Kortesidou (author) is a Senior Consultant at UIIN, holds an MSc in Behavioural Neuroscience Sciences and a BSc in Molecular Biology. In her work, she supports institutions on topics relating to social innovation, institutional transformation and strategic partnerships.