Rewiring the system: How UCalgary rethinks entrepreneurial education
In this episode, we are joined by Oleks Osiyevskyy and Guy Levesque from the University of Calgary to unpack what it really means to rewire entrepreneurial education. Drawing on the work done at the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, they challenge the idea of entrepreneurship as just startups and commercialisation, and make the case for entrepreneurial thinking as a mindset for creating change across systems.
From intrapreneurship to building inclusive pipelines that serve students, researchers, and communities alike, this conversation offers a grounded look at how universities can design education that leads to real-world impact.
You can read a summary below, and listen to the full interview in our podcast:
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Summary
At UCalgary, entrepreneurial education is not confined to business schools or venture pipelines. It spans all 13 faculties and extends from undergraduate curiosity to postdoctoral commercialisation. Drawing on research, community culture and institutional experimentation, Guy and Oleks outline how the university is building not just founders, but change makers capable of transforming systems from within and beyond academia.
Entrepreneurship is not just startups
Oleks is clear: Start-ups matter. High-growth ventures energise economies and solve problems large organisations cannot. But defining entrepreneurship exclusively as commercialisation is limiting, and sometimes harmful.
Entrepreneurs are agents of change.
Drawing on Schumpeter’s definition, Oleks reframes entrepreneurship as the ability to innovate within constraints, whether in public administration, social enterprises, academia or corporations. Startups are one expression of this agency, not its entirety.
For the Hunter Hub, this broader framing is intentional. Its mandate is accessibility across all faculties, not ownership by a single school.
By focusing on entrepreneurial thinking rather than venture creation alone, the university invites skeptics into the conversation without diluting ambition.
The intrapreneurship pathway to entrepreneurship
One of the most striking insights from Oleks’ research is the age profile of successful founders. Contrary to popular mythology, the average founder of high-growth ventures is around 45.
Successful entrepreneurs usually engage in intrapreneurial experience.
His cross-country research using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data shows that many founders build capabilities inside organisations first, launching products, entering new markets, leading change, etc. before spinning out. Intrapreneurship becomes a training ground for future venture creation.
For Guy, this insight reinforces the need to provide experiential learning early, accelerating exposure to systems thinking, problem definition and lived complexity within university education.
Agency through community, not isolation
At the Hunter Hub, agency is more than empowerment rhetoric; it is infrastructure.
The university cultivates entrepreneurial thinking through communities of practice, peer role models and collision points between students, alumni, mentors and industry partners. Programs range from low-commitment curiosity to high-intensity venture development.
Importantly, not all programs use the language of entrepreneurship. Initiatives like Map the System invite students to analyse complex social challenges without invoking commercialisation vocabulary.
By focusing on systems thinking and real-world problems, the university reaches nurses, educators, social workers and medical residents, expanding who sees themselves as a change maker.
Piloting change inside a 700-year-old system
Universities are bureaucratic by design and changing them requires experimentation.
Oleks credits UCalgary’s leadership culture for enabling small-scale experimentation. Pilots, in the form of courses, procedures, programs… create space for innovation without destabilising the institution. Some fail; others scale.
As a young university in Alberta’s “can-do” culture, UCalgary benefits from regional energy and long-standing industry partnerships. More than a third of its research revenue comes from academic-industry collaboration, shaping an institutional personality oriented toward problem solving.
Rethinking the talent pipeline
For Guy, building the “best entrepreneurial talent pipeline” is not about linear progression, but it is about creating virtuous circles.
There are people who want to live the entrepreneurial journey, and people who want to play it.
The Hunter Hub distinguishes between curiosity and commitment. Some students dip their toe in; others commit six or seven days a week to venture creation. Alumni, investors, advisors and corporates form a network of collision points.
Rather than a single path, the pipeline becomes a community ecosystem, where belonging, experimentation and realism coexist.
UCalgary’s approach reframes entrepreneurship as agency rather than occupation. By embedding entrepreneurial thinking across disciplines, encouraging intrapreneurial experience and enabling institutional pilots, the university moves beyond startup rhetoric toward systemic change. In doing so, it offers a model for how higher education can rewire itself, without losing academic integrity.
Ready for more?
If today’s conversation on entrepreneurial thinking, intrapreneurship, and building inclusive talent pipelines sparked new ideas, you can dive deeper in the Future of Universities Thoughtbook | Entrepreneurial Edition.
Oleks Osiyevskyy and Guy Levesque both contribute to the volume, alongside 35+ other experts from around the world, each offering their take on how universities can move beyond narrow definitions of entrepreneurship and design systems that truly enable change.
Whether you’re leading a centre, redesigning curriculum, or shaping institutional strategy, the book offers practical insight and bold thinking on the future of entrepreneurial universities.
Stay tuned for the next episode on this series and don’t forget to follow us on your preferred podcast platform!
