University-industry co-creation to build Entrepreneurial Universities in the Southern African Development Community

ongoing

This structural project aims to address a number of challenges faced by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, most importantly low levels of job creation, start-up success and graduate employment. It aims to use entrepreneurship as the vehicle for transformation given that universities in the region largely lack the people, policies, curricula and private sector partnerships needed to foster entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours in students and staff. The project’s specific objectives involve, (1) training and supporting academic leaders to co-create curricula with industry and societal partners, across 4 SADC countries, to develop a university-wide culture of entrepreneurship and innovation; (2) piloting the embedding of co-creation units (CCUs) within university Technology Transfer Offices that facilitate co-creation between students, staff and industry partners; (3) creating an ecosystem of agents of change in SADC countries, that can systematically shape/inform policies related to university-industry cooperation, curriculum design and joint qualifications that will help build Entrepreneurial Universities. The objectives speak directly to one of the main priority actions identified by the CBHE call for Sub-saharan Africa, namely Sustainable Growth and Jobs, by aiming to modernise curricula (by making them more responsive to the labour market), stimulating innovation and creating more employable and entrepreneurial graduates. The creation of the supporting ecosystem and CCUs will ensure systemic and structural improvement and innovation, and the involvement of the Ministries as direct beneficiaries will contribute to improving the competencies or readiness of Ministries of Education to help the HE sector contribute to innovation and job creation, and better meet the needs of the labour market in 4 SADC countries.