Setting up for Student Entrepreneurship Success

Creating a thriving culture of student entrepreneurship requires more than offering a few entrepreneurship courses or running an annual competition. It involves developing a clear institutional vision, creating the right support structures, and providing students with meaningful opportunities to explore and develop entrepreneurial mindsets and ventures.

This masterclass explores how universities can build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that encourages students to see entrepreneurship as a viable and rewarding pathway. Participants will examine the foundations of entrepreneurship education, explore practical tools that stimulate entrepreneurial activity, and discuss different institutional models for supporting student entrepreneurship.

Through practical frameworks, examples, and peer discussion, participants will gain a clearer understanding of how to create sustainable entrepreneurial cultures that engage students across disciplines and translate entrepreneurial ambition into action.

This masterclass is for:

• University leaders, including vice presidents and deans
• Directors of entrepreneurship centres, institutes and incubators
• Knowledge transfer and innovation professionals supporting student and academic entrepreneurship
• Professors of entrepreneurship and innovation
• Facilitators, coaches and mentors
• Educators and learning designers

After the session, participants will be able to:

1. Develop a clear vision for fostering student entrepreneurship within their institution
2. Understand a practical framework for entrepreneurship education across the university
3. Identify and apply the key tools that stimulate entrepreneurial engagement, including entrepreneurship courses, pitching competitions, hackathons, challenge-based learning and demo days
4. Compare centralised and decentralised approaches to supporting entrepreneurship and understand when each is most effective
5. Design environments and spaces that encourage entrepreneurial activity, collaboration and innovation among students

A/Prof. Dr. Todd Davey, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the IMT-BS, Associate Partner at UIIN

Todd has consulted to the European, Australian, and Vietnamese Governments, and to multiple universities. Todd is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the IMT Business School in Paris and a visiting researcher at Imperial College (UK), the Technical University of Vienna (AUT), and the University of Adelaide (AUST) on the topics of entrepreneurship and innovation.

UIIN Masterclasses are live, interactive workshops designed to provide in-depth learning on key topics related to university-industry collaboration. Led by experts, these sessions combine guided discussions, hands-on exercises, and peer learning to help participants develop practical strategies and skills.