Entrepreneurship is thriving on university campuses: Report

By Lindsay Borthwick

Canadian universities are taking diverse approaches to equip students with entrepreneurial skills and foster a start-up culture on campuses.

This diversity is documented in a new report released this week by Mitacs, a national not-for-profit organization that provides research and training programs to support innovation. Titled Entrepreneurs on Campus: University-based support for start-ups, the report provides an overview of the diverse approaches universities are taking to prepare students for a rapidly changing workforce—as entrepreneurs or as employees.

“Ten years ago, there was a question of whether universities should be training entrepreneurs. That’s not a question anymore. Canada has some stunning examples of campus-based innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives that show it can and should be part of the university experience,” said Dr Alejandro Adem, Mitacs’ CEO and Scientific Director, in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY.

The report also maps campus-linked incubators and accelerators, identifying 69 across Canada, with Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec hosting the majority. These incubators and accelerators are examples of the many ways universities are moving learning out of the classroom, helping students gain real-world experience.

A 2013 survey by the Bank of Montreal suggests demand among students is high. The survey found that nearly half of Canadian post-secondary students envision starting their own businesses.

The new report captures the various steps universities are taking to address this need. It stems from a series of round-table discussions with universities, incubators and policy organizations in spring 2018, led by Mitacs in partnership with the Public Policy Forum, a not-for-profit policy research organization.

“We saw the development of different models of entrepreneurship and of different efforts to encourage students and get faculty involved in start-up culture. But there was very little knowledge about the landscape as a whole. Where are we? What’s happening? Are there best cases? What lessons can we learn from them?” Adem said.

Experimentation is working

Two key themes about campus-based entrepreneurship emerged from the round-table discussions and are highlighted in the report.

The first theme is a striking diversity. Universities are experimenting with a broad set of programs to help young entrepreneurs thrive, ranging from courses and workshops, from competitions to networking events, and from experimental workspaces known as “sandboxes” to start-up accelerators. The programs also vary in focus from science to social innovation and in the degree to which they engage the broader community.

Bin Liu joined the Univ of Toronto’s Impact Centre, which is focused on turning science into products to benefit society, in the spring of 2014 as he was finishing his undergraduate degree in civil engineering. He is CEO and co-founder, with Arjun Mali, of iMerciv, a company that makes wearable assistive technologies for people who are blind, deaf-blind or partially sighted.

He credits his success to the diversity of the Univ of Toronto’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “The incubators at U of T all have different, unique properties to them. It’s not ‘one size fits all’ but rather a ‘best fit’ situation,” he told RE$EARCH MONEY. “The Impact Centre offers consistent support with no timeline. In my opinion, it’s amazing for translating physical science into tech. Sometimes research can’t be rushed.”

The new report provides a sampling of campus-based entrepreneurship initiatives across the country, from an interdisciplinary social innovation lab, RADIUS, based at Simon Fraser Univ to the Accelerator for the Creation of Technology Companies at the Univ de Sherbrooke, which is focused on creating technology companies and boosting the local economy. According to U of T Entrepreneurship, Univ of Toronto has 200 courses and programs, including 9 entrepreneurship centres, that attract more than 11,000 students each year.

Start-up culture is coming

The report’s second theme highlights an ongoing challenge for universities as they embrace their role in nurturing entrepreneurship: Fostering an "entrepreneurial mindset." Traditionally, most universities did not have entrepreneurship in their DNA. According to the report, “For most institutions, the process of establishing an entrepreneurial culture is an ongoing one, and progress is incremental.”

However, based on Mitacs' research, Adem is optimistic. “Canadian universities are narrowing this gap, blurring the artificial notion that has developed over the past 50 years of the Ivory Tower as separate from the real world,” he said. “They recognize that they need to make sure students have the tools they need to be successful.”

Despite this evolution, the round-table participants suggested three groups of students may be under-represented in entrepreneurship programs, though data are needed to support their observations. Those groups are: International students, women, and those in the social sciences and humanities.

The report concludes with four recommendations for university leaders: continue experimenting with different approaches to campus-based entrepreneurship; develop clear metrics to gauge the success of these initiatives, collaborate closely with the local community to understand and address their needs, and focus on making entrepreneurship opportunities accessible to all students.

iMerciv's Liu underscores how exposure to entrepreneurship on campus can benefit everyone. "It changes the way you think. You are looking to innovate, to make new things. That mindset carries over into everything you pursue, even if you don't go on to launch your own venture. It really changes how you work," he said.

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