Fostering engaged and entrepreneurial culture at universities

Fostering an engaged and entrepreneurial culture at universities is a 2025 UIIN brief examining what helps cultural change take hold when universities want academics to engage more with external partners and act entrepreneurially. Its central message is that lasting change depends on aligning expectations, incentives, communication, and support with the behaviours universities want to encourage.

Why cultural change matters

Universities are expected to address societal challenges while making research and education more relevant beyond campus. That requires academics to work with industry, communities, alumni, citizens, and other external partners, yet many institutional systems still prioritise research and teaching above external engagement and entrepreneurial activity.

The challenge is therefore cultural as well as operational. Bureaucratic processes, siloed structures, restrictive arrangements, and established academic norms can make engagement feel peripheral to the academic role. Building an engaged and entrepreneurial culture means making these activities visible, legitimate, supported, and connected to the university’s wider mission rather than leaving participation to individual enthusiasm.

These pressures are connected across four dimensions: awareness, communication, incentives and rewards, and the support environment. A university can raise awareness, for example, but if promotion still rewards research and teaching more heavily, staff receive conflicting signals. Likewise, useful support services have limited value if academics do not know they exist or cannot allocate time to use them. Consistency across these dimensions is therefore central to cultural change.

Four barriers that hold engagement back

Engagement is not always seen as part of the role

Academic staff may not recognise external engagement or entrepreneurial activity as a normal part of their work, and some are unsure of the benefits or where to begin. When these activities sit outside job expectations, induction, and everyday academic conversations, they can remain dependent on a small group of already-engaged individuals.

Research and teaching dominate incentives

Time, recognition, and career progression strongly shape what academics prioritise. Where research and education carry greater weight in promotion and performance systems, external engagement competes for already limited capacity. A lack of dedicated time and formal recognition can make collaboration harder to sustain, even when staff see its potential value.

Communication gaps weaken collaboration

Engaging external organisations brings different working cultures, expectations, and timelines into contact. Mismatched expectations can complicate collaboration, while academics may also lack guidance on entrepreneurship-related questions. Within the university, limited communication about support, resources, people, and opportunities can make it difficult to know how to move an idea forward.

Support systems can be difficult to navigate

Administrative barriers can reduce flexibility, and access to industry contacts or financial resources differs across institutions and departments. Even where support exists, staff may not feel comfortable accessing it. Informal networks often help academics find advice and opportunities, but relying on informal routes alone can make support uneven and difficult for newcomers to discover.

Designing an engaged and entrepreneurial culture

Universities can respond by connecting cultural expectations with practical systems. External engagement and entrepreneurial activity can be introduced early through job descriptions and induction, while existing academic experiences can be used to demonstrate benefits and make participation feel relevant to colleagues. Peer-to-peer communication is particularly valuable because positive experiences can encourage others to explore similar opportunities.

Communication also needs to be continuous rather than limited to occasional campaigns. Universities can report on the impact of engagement, clarify institutional priorities, create feedback mechanisms, and keep staff informed about training, competitions, resources, and relevant support. Institution-wide events and activities involving external partners can help staff build relationships while making engagement more visible across departments.

Incentive systems need to reinforce the same message. Allocating time, recognising engagement in promotion, acknowledging contributions within departments, and considering alternative career paths can signal that externally focused work is valued alongside research and education. Training, mentoring, internal support networks, and opportunities to participate in external networks can then give academics the confidence and resources to act on that signal.

Leadership provides another layer of alignment. Cultural change needs to connect with the university’s mission and vision, while leaders and managers make the desired direction credible through their decisions and priorities. At the same time, institutions need to understand the cultures already present across departments rather than assuming one change model will work everywhere. That local understanding can help universities adapt support and communication without losing an institution-wide sense of purpose.

What motivates academics to engage

The underlying investigation combined focus groups with 40 academics and interviews with 17 experts, alongside a review of research and positive institutional initiatives. The drivers identified were both extrinsic and intrinsic: access to time, budget, supportive management, funding, networks, and recognition mattered, but so did satisfaction, relevance, student benefit, and social impact.

That distinction matters for change efforts. One Time4UniChange interviewee noted that societal benefit often resonates more strongly with colleagues than financial gain. Universities may therefore be more successful when they connect engagement to academic purpose, learning, employability, and societal contribution, while also removing the structural barriers that make participation difficult.

Move from isolated activity to cultural change

There is no single model for changing university culture. What matters is alignment between mission, leadership, incentives, communication, existing cultures, and the support academics can access. Download Fostering an engaged and entrepreneurial culture at universities to explore the barriers, drivers, and practical recommendations in greater depth and consider how they could inform change within your institution.

Ready for more?

Cultivating an engaged and entrepreneurial culture within universities is essential for fostering innovation and external collaborations. If you want to explore more about this topic, listen to the episode about How to drive cultural change in universities, where Rimante Rusaite further delves into effective approaches for fostering innovation and collaboration.

Rimante Rusaite (author) is a Senior Project Officer at UIIN and holds an MSc in Environmental Policy and BSc in Psychology. Dedicated to sustainability and innovations, she’s also a design thinking coach and systems thinking enthusiast.

Frequently asked questions

What is an engaged and entrepreneurial culture at a university?

An engaged and entrepreneurial culture is one in which external collaboration and entrepreneurial activity are recognised as legitimate parts of academic work. Staff understand their value, know how to access support, and are encouraged to connect research and education with external partners. Institutional expectations, communication, incentives, and support systems reinforce those behaviours rather than leaving them dependent on individual initiative.

Why do academics face barriers to external engagement?

Academics can face barriers because external engagement competes with research and teaching for time and recognition. Administrative constraints, limited external contacts, uneven financial resources, cultural differences with partners, and unclear guidance can also make participation harder. In addition, staff may not know what support exists or may not see engagement as a recognised part of their academic role.

How can universities encourage academic entrepreneurship and engagement?

Universities can encourage participation by making engagement visible in job expectations and induction, communicating opportunities and support, creating spaces for peer learning, and providing training or mentoring. They can also support external networking, showcase positive examples, report on impact, and ensure staff have enough time and resources to take part in collaborative and entrepreneurial activities.

What role do incentives play in university culture change?

Incentives help translate institutional priorities into everyday academic choices. Dedicated time, recognition from colleagues and management, promotion criteria, career pathways, funding, and performance reviews can all signal that external engagement matters. Incentives are most effective when combined with intrinsic motivations such as professional satisfaction, student benefit, relevance to research, and making a positive contribution to society.