Nurseries of growth

Universities are known to play a significant role in innovation and development of an entrepreneurial class through integrating theoretical and methodological knowledge with practical needs. With the changing economic landscape throughout the country, universities need to make entrepreneurship a part of academic experience while creating a culture that allows innovation to flourish optimally.

In today's economy, innovation and technology have emerged as major drivers of growth and development. As a result, the global agenda has also moved towards supporting new businesses that promote technology development. Developing products and services that meet the needs of our society, and contribute to the development of the economy, requires our university system to ramp up the efforts to foster innovation in entrepreneurship development. Entrepreneurs are traditionally viewed as an essential source of innovation, and the innovations they come out with are seen as a direct result of application of knowledge gained while studying at the universities. It will not be wrong to say that universities, as accelerators of economic development, can make a powerful difference in fostering a culture of entrepreneurship at a time when societal challenges demand interdisciplinary engagements.

Each university should make sincere efforts towards maintaining a functional and guiding framework to enable an appropriate environment for entrepreneurial development, and actively engage with the students, research scholars, and faculty members in activities related to the same. Students, at the same time, should connect with various programmes focusing on innovation challenges that will help them develop technical skills and work with a team on a specific project.

Initiatives such as entrepreneurship education, establishment of technology transfer offices and incubators supporting spin-offs, and collaborative research with industry partners, are the correct steps towards realising innovation from the university laboratories and classrooms. Furthermore, universities need to establish new partnerships with foundations, for-profit companies, and other research-intensive institutions. Collaboration among these institutions goes beyond the transfer of knowledge and technology. Funding from these entities can provide resources for university faculty members and students to pursue fundamental research in their area of interest, help exchange ideas with the best of minds outside the academia and, most importantly, enable the students to take their ideas beyond the university campus. Establishing a start-up culture requires the integration of the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship in the early education system. Universities definitely need to emphasise creation of programmes that would support their graduates in starting their own business and provide the much-needed mentorship programmes to help them get through each stage of the start-up process.

Universities can further contribute by initiating industry-based collaborative training programmes to create technology and highly specialised skilled workforce. Additionally, universities should focus on cross-campus collaboration. This is in addition to providing hands-on experiential programmes, dedicated workspace, and mentoring programmes to help student entrepreneurs create a climate conducive to entrepreneurship. Furthermore, universities need to integrate courses related to entrepreneurship into their curricula. Doing so will require developing standardised guidelines for entrepreneurship education at higher educational institutions. In addition, strengthening market development is also crucial if universities wish to enhance their venture-supported activities. Including market development as a course in their programme, which requires out-of-the-box thinking, will also help realise this goal.

Skills like organisation, network building, selling effectively, and working well in teams are essential for an entrepreneur. In addition to creating new knowledge and making industry-employable students, universities should teach students how to create jobs and how to participate in the country's economic and social development.

With the National Education Policy 2020 in place, Indian universities are ready to emphasise imparting practical and vocational education to develop industry-ready skilled workers. With more than one thousand universities in India, where most are engaged in teaching, the work needs to be championed by a top few. Once the processes and mechanisms come into practice, they can work as mentors to train others. We know from history that those who prepare themselves for a changing environment in work are likely to thrive in tough times. For the new economy to succeed, we all must ensure that students in our universities are taught differently to face global challenges. Fostering a start-up culture that is inclusive, efficient, and valuable, will strengthen an innovation ecosystem in our universities to provide solutions that our society needs. Further, as educators, we have a privileged opportunity and responsibility to prepare the next generation of young Indians for a rapidly changing global market.

The writer is a Professor, Life Sciences and Systems Medicine, President of the Institutional Innovation Council, and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Rector) at JNU