{"id":54798,"date":"2023-10-20T16:28:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-two-australian-universities-are-fostering-the-next-generation-of-entrepreneurs-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:28:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:28:54","slug":"how-two-australian-universities-are-fostering-the-next-generation-of-entrepreneurs-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-two-australian-universities-are-fostering-the-next-generation-of-entrepreneurs-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How two Australian universities are fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three and a half years ago, the University of NSW took a big risk.<\/p>\n

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Long before startups and innovation became mainstream discussion points and political buzzwords, the university launched the Student Entrepreneur Development<\/a> group.<\/p>\n

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It offered hands-on, direct startup experience, embraced the possibility of failure and created a web of connections with the world outside the uni – many things that clashed directly with how higher institutions often operate.<\/p>\n

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It began as Joshua Flannery\u2019s pet project – a \u201cone-man band\u201d dedicated to producing the nation\u2019s next generation of founders and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

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But it grew quickly and rapidly helped to positioning UNSW as the country\u2019s most prestigious and successful entrepreneurial university.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt started off very much as an experiment,\u201d Flannery tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n


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\u201cBut within 12 months I was struggling to deal with 100 real startup and small business projects.  From there I was able to pitch for new resources and form a more fully-fledged team.\u201d <\/p>\n

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The risk had paid off.<\/p>\n

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The entrepreneurial university<\/b><\/p>\n


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Australian universities in general are failing budding entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s what a recent study released by the CSIRO and conducted by Spike Innovation director Colin Kinner says<\/a>, claiming these institutions are \u201clate to the party\u201d and stuck in a traditional method of teaching.<\/p>\n

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But there are some shining lights, and UNSW is the brightest of them all.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUNSW is doing really good stuff,\u201d Kinner says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019ve got a broad sweep of programs aimed at supporting student entrepreneurs and exposing them to the idea of startups.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The report also recommends a way forward for unis, with experiential learning, teachers with a background in startups, early introductions to the concepts, non-compulsory courses and various ways to help commercialise students\u2019 ideas.<\/p>\n

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The blueprint is basically what the UNSW Innovations department is currently doing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve hit the nail on the head with this one,\u201d Flannery says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of that reads as a checklist of what we had taken a punt on in 2012. We backed ourselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s about building an army of entrepreneurs will real-world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Webs of entrepreneurialism<\/b><\/p>\n

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The core of what UNSW does for entrepreneurialism is in the non-credit classes, the non-compulsory lessons set aside for the serious innovators.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s all split up into four key groups: credit courses, extra-curriculum, clubs and societies and startup support.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s no credit or acknowledgement in the academic world for what they\u2019re doing – they\u2019re saying: \u2018I want to do a startup for real, how can you help?\u2019\u201d Flannery says.<\/p>\n

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The university has supported 400 student and alumni-led startups and small businesses since July 2012 and claims to have produced more CEOs and millionaires than any of its competitors.<\/p>\n

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Startups that have passed through UNSW\u2019s doors include Internet of Things company Forcite, publishing platform Issue and Conscious Step.<\/p>\n

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Flannery\u2019s baby, the Student Entrepreneur Development Centre, provides the key link to the outside startup ecosystem, and now has three full-time staff members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe team is a guide and connector for these students and alumni to the people in the startup ecosystem who might become mentors, organisations that might become partners or just the next step in a particular stage of the process where they need to validate it,\u201d Flannery says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you need a job, you go to the careers office. If you have an idea and want to make it into a startup, then the doors are always open here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s also a pro-bono legal centre and a \u201cworld first\u201d FounderLab, which helps students to build an MVP of their tech idea.<\/p>\n

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These webs of connections that snake across most faculties have formed over time, Flannery says, and have only just begun to be consolidated.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s taken a few years to get everyone on the same page,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow we have a page that has everyone listed in their category of entrepreneurial support on campus, and that\u2019s quite significant.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor some people seeing is believing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Introducing entrepreneurial teachings and practices into universities can be seen as a microcosm of the process of creating a startup.<\/p>\n

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It begins with a new idea shared between a handful of people – one that\u2019s often in direct opposition to the status quo.<\/p>\n

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A team gradually forms around the innovation, utilises lean approaches to test and refine the process, bringing in more people along the way.<\/p>\n

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If everything goes to plan, the traditional way of doing things is thrown out the window, and the new ideas expand nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n

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But there\u2019s still a lot of hard work to be done to get Australia back on level-pegging in the international startup scene, Flannery says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re still quite a way behind the leaders globally,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s motivating to see how much we\u2019ve done in a short time but we\u2019ve got a long way to go.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat equals a lot of opportunity and hard work in co-ordinating our efforts to further put Australia on the map in a global context rather than just in our own backyard and patting ourselves on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Monash embarking on the journey<\/b><\/p>\n


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Nearly 900km away, Monash University is trying to follow in Flannery and UNSW\u2019s footsteps, and Buzz Palmer is leading the way.<\/p>\n

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The CEO of STC Australia and lecturer in entrepreneurship and technology commercialisation is working with the Victorian university to position itself as a leading institution for training entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

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Fifteen new programs will be launched for the first semester next year, which Palmer hopes will begin a broad cultural change throughout the university. There\u2019ll also be many of the hallmarks of wider startup communities: hackathons, pitching competitions and international trips.<\/p>\n

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For next year, Monash will have a mentor network of 400 people, an entrepreneurial lecture series, and an incubator. By 2017, it hopes to have launched an accelerator, seed fund, angel network and startup bootcamps.<\/p>\n

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This process will culminate with the opening of a whole new entrepreneurial facility in three or four years.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a hard task for Palmer, and one that requires a willingness to change and adapt for all levels of the university.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe direction has come from the top: we have to change the culture,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are two types of people at university: those that want to change, and those that don\u2019t quite understand it and fear the change.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ll start across the whole university and demonstrate the capability and capacity that the university has to be entrepreneurial and drive technology to the marketplace.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re choosing things we know are effective and accessible, and driving it through the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Can universities produce startups?<\/b><\/p>\n


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Both universities\u2019 efforts form a central argument in an ongoing debate – should we be looking to research and higher education to produce Australia\u2019s innovative ideas and companies?<\/p>\n

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Commercialisation of research that emerges from universities is a primary concern for Australia at the moment, with a recent report saying innovation is suffering from a \u201clack of direction\u201d and \u201chaphazard\u201d approach,<\/a> and enormous opportunities are being missed.<\/p>\n

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For Palmer and Flannery, the current system employed by most Australian universities isn\u2019t working, and things have to change quickly to take advantage of the current focus on innovation and startups that\u2019s taking place in Canberra.<\/p>\n

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For all the rhetoric, and the funds being poured into the sector at the moment, it\u2019ll be for nothing if there isn\u2019t a next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors and founders there to reap the spoils and drive the economy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe general consensus is every university in Australia is talking about it, and a few are starting to take a lead,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the next few years there\u2019ll be a culture change across Australia, and our new leadership is demonstrating that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For the universities it\u2019s a long-term play. Neither UNSW or Monash will be taking equity in any of the startups they produce, so it\u2019s more about the distant future where successful entrepreneurs might pay it forward.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re not looking at a transactional relationship with the startups, we\u2019re definitely hoping for the US model so in 10-15 years later the few big winners out of the teams we\u2019ve helped can take a look back at the university and remember the value we added and hopefully give back,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

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\"unsw3\"<\/p>\n

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Taking more risks<\/b><\/p>\n


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Introducing entrepreneurialism into universities is a long process. It\u2019s more than just new courses, programs and lecturers – it requires an entire cultural shift to one that embraces failure and risk, and the advantages of real-world experience over textbooks.<\/p>\n

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For UNSW, the work that Flannery began in 2012 is finally beginning to pay off, but it\u2019s not something that can just be copied by other universities around the country.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to prescribe a model,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOurs was definitely born out of the environment on campus here and all the different initiatives that already existed in silos. The first step is just getting everyone in the room.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe various faculties and schools tend to have this, \u2018we own entrepreneurialism\u2019 attitude, but anyone that\u2019s been in the space for a while knows that it\u2019s cross-faculty collaboration.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe more you can integrate with programs and events in a platform that brings everyone together, the more success you\u2019ll have and the faster it\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Just like startup founders, universities need to be taking more risks like UNSW did back in 2012, Palmer says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost universities have an entrepreneurial education aspect, but you can\u2019t teach entrepreneurialism,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a gut feeling, an innate culture within somebody. What you can teach are the skills necessary for them to be a successful entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEducation is one thing but actually doing it is something else.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAllowing the students the opportunity to build companies and experience failure early on is critical – it\u2019s the best way to understand it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll universities in Australia have to be a little more risky.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three and a half years ago, the University of NSW took a big risk. \u00a0 Long before startups and innovation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,27,9,28,11,24,20,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}