DesUni: university entrepreneurship education through design thinking

Abstract

Purpose

In recent years there has been growing focus on the innovative and profit generating value of design thinking in a businesses. This attention is also reflected in business education. The basic thesis is that design thinking is particular relavant to entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this paper is to propose a teaching model, named the DesUni model. The model suggests a novel design-oriented approach to entrepreneurship education.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper relies on the interfaces between the literatures on entrepreneurship education and design thinking. From reviewing and synthesizing these literatures new insights are offered into how to develop entrepreneurship education through design thinking.

Findings

The DesUni teaching model offers a significant shift in paradigm changing the traditional didactic assumptions of entrepreneurship education. It involves a change in curriculum, teaching methods, use of knowledge, teaching style, teacher-student relations, culture, habitat and assessment.

Originality/value

The DesUni teaching model offers a unique way to form an entrepreneurship curriculum. This curriculum bridges the discovering of the present with what might be in the future along with that students are collaborating with different stakeholders.

Citation

Nielsen, S.L. and Stovang, P. (2015), "DesUni: university entrepreneurship education through design thinking", Education + Training, Vol. 57 No. 8/9, pp. 977-991. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-09-2014-0121