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Assessing the Entrepreneurial University from the Students' Perspective: Practical Insights From the University of Aveiro

Assessing the Entrepreneurial University from the Students' Perspective: Practical Insights From the University of Aveiro

Barbara Filipa Casqueira Coelho Gabriel (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Cláudia Figueiredo (University of Aveiro, Portugal), and Robertt A. F. Valente (University of Aveiro, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7456-0.ch004
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Abstract

Becoming an entrepreneurial university is one of the core objectives of the EU-OECD HEInnovate tool. This objective was also the catalyst for implementing HEInnovate within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Aveiro (UAVR), Portugal. This chapter explores the findings from a study that applied a mixed-methods approach to assessing the entrepreneurial and innovative vision of UAVR's students from different academic years and courses. Findings demonstrate students' high level of interest in innovation and entrepreneurship and highlight the importance they placed on entrepreneurial learning and teaching. Entrepreneurial learning and teaching were found to be especially important for creating collaborative networks between different people and scientific domains, both within and outside of the university.
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The Heinnovate Tool

HEInnovate is a self-reflection tool that higher education institutions (HEIs) can use to assess their entrepreneurial and innovative actions and strategies; it is freely available at www.heinnovate.eu. Intended primarily as a tool for self-reflection and diagnostics, HEInnovate provides users with ideas and concrete goals in relation to the ‘next steps’ required to improve their institution’s innovation capacity (Hofer & Kaffka, 2018).

HEInnovate was launched in 2013 by the European Commission (Directorate-General Education, Youth, Sport and Culture) and the Local Economic and Employment Development Programme of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It was created following recommendations from the European University-Business Forum in 2011, a forum promoted by the European Commission to address the entrepreneurship and innovation agenda within Higher Education Institutions (HEInnovate, 1). During the forum, the late Professor Allan Gibb provided the following working definition of entrepreneurial HEIs:

Entrepreneurial higher education institutions are designed to empower staff and students to demonstrate enterprise, innovation and creativity in research, teaching and pursuit and use of knowledge across boundaries. They contribute effectively to the enhancement of learning in a societal environment characterised by high levels of uncertainty and complexity and they are dedicated to creating public value via a process of open engagement, mutual learning, discovery and exchange with all stakeholders in society - local, national and international (Gibb & Haskins, 2014).

HEInnovate was designed as an accessible, open-source and self-reporting instrument, and is currently structured across eight dimensions. Each dimension addresses an aspect that is deemed to be critical to an innovative and entrepreneurial HEI (HEInnovate, 2), namely:

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