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

UNIICo-create will contribute to the economic development of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region through building entrepreneurial universities that foster university-industry and civil society co-creation of curricula, capacity, systems, processes and policy.

This structural project will address several challenges faced by the SADC region, most importantly low levels of job creation, start-up success, and graduate employment. It uses 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.

1. To train and support 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. To pilot in 4 SADC countries the embedding of co-creation units (CCUs) within university Technology Transfer Offices that facilitate co-creation between students, staff and industry partners for the purpose of building entrepreneurial universities.

3. To create 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 novel entrepreneurship curricula that will be developed and piloted, the online toolkit for establishing co-creation units and the policy briefs on entrepreneurship education and fostering university-industry collaboration that will be developed will lead to long-term impact:

Improved governance for policymaking and policy implementation in HE

Stronger links and cooperation between HE and the private sector, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship

Better alignment of universities with the labour market, enhancing employability of students

Increased students’ sense of initiative and entrepreneurship (all of which are expected impacts of the call)

Erasmus+ Capacity Building (CBHE)

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