Our Director of International Cooperation and Erasmus+ Institutional Coordinator will present VUM`s project BEEHIVE at the event “HEInnovate: Supporting Institutional Change in Higher Education”, which will take place on June 14 and June 15 at Ruse University ‘Angel Kanchev’.
The event is organised by the European Commission, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria and Ruse University ‘Angel Kanchev’ and is part of the calendar of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The event will start on 14 June 2018 with three simultaneous sessions: Train the trainers whole-day session (accessible only upon acceptance of application), a set of speed-dating exercises focusing on two of the dimensions of HEInnovate: ‘Preparing and Supporting Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Entrepreneurial Teaching and Learning’. In the afternoon, the participants can opt for panel discussions on Innovation through Higher Education, The Regional Perspective or visit the Innovative Youth EXPO, which will feature entrepreneurial and innovative projects of students from Bulgaria and the European Union. The EXPO is organized under the auspices of Mr Krasimir Valchev, Minister of Education and Science of Bulgaria, the National Assembly of Students’ Councils of Bulgaria and The Council of the Rectors of Bulgaria. The first day will finish with elevator pitches and an award ceremony of the EXPO participants. The second day of the event will bring all participants together in plenary sessions with opening addresses, keynote and a high-level panel discussion. The event will gather around 150 European higher education institution representatives, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders that will engage in policy discussions, networking and debates.
The presentation will cover two dimensions related to the HEInnovate iniative:nPreparing and Supporting Entrepreneurs and Leadership and Governance. The BEEHIVE project’s overall objective is to build sustainable university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems at higher education institutions in Indonesia and the Philippines, and to enhance their students’ and graduates’ employability and ability to create jobs. Furthermore, BEEHIVE strives to support the partner universities’ transformation into entrepreneurial universities.
Key outcomes of the project:
1. Towards the Entrepreneurial University National Benchmarking Reports for Indonesia and the Philippines to map out and benchmark the status of universities in Indonesia and the Philippines towards an alignment with the entrepreneurial university concept.
2. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Entrepreneurship for All to disseminate up-to-date training and knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship across the campuses of the Indonesian and Philippine universities involved and to build their students entrepreneurial skills. At least 1000 students are to benefit from the MOOC delivered in English through the project website.
3. BEEHIVE Accelerator Programme induced at the partner universities to create entrepreneurship-based self-employment opportunities through streamlined business start-up support in the framework of five designated seed accelerators. At least ten business start-ups will be established through the BEEHIVE.
4. BEEHIVE Label designed to empower Indonesian and Philippine universities to transform gradually into entrepreneurial universities through the evaluation of their entrepreneurial ecosystems’ excellence. At least three universities will be certified and awarded a BEEHIVE Label in the course of the final third project year.
Being a joint Erasmus+ project with a scope of intervention mainly at university level, BEEHIVE addresses and brings legitimate gains first and foremost to the last two listed areas, namely to entrepreneurship education and training, and to creativity and innovation. The project fosters awareness of entrepreneurship across campus and introduces up-to-date business start-up education and training. Furthermore, through the BEEHIVE Accelerator Programme it also provides support to innovative start-up endeavors. Last but not least, through the BEEHIVE Label the project promotes the entrepreneurial university concept across the higher education sectors in Indonesia and the Philippines.
BEEHIVE secondary target groups include students, alumni, faculty and senior management of universities in Indonesia and the Philippines that are not members of the BEEHIVE consortium; Indonesian and Philippine universities’ business partners; companies, business investors and venture capitalists, civil society representatives, policy makers and public authorities supporting start-ups in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Nurturing student entrepreneurship requires a multifaceted holistic approach that sees entrepreneurship not merely as an individual effort but as a comprehensive process of networking and creating synergies between different stakeholders.
The BEEHIVE project is designed to provide support to University of Indonesia (the oldest and the largest public university in the country), BINUS University (the largest private university in Indonesia), University of Cebu (the largest university in the Philippines) as well as Mapua University and Saint Louis University in the Philippines, both of which have student bodies of nearly 20 000 students. In hindsight, it seems that including small-sized universities, as well as more regional universities would have added a new layer to the project impact on national level.