The university business incubator named best in the Asia Pacific has had a meteoric rise in its contribution to enterprise education in Australia.
Flinders University’s New Venture Institute has emerged as one of the fast movers in a major review of Entrepreneurship Education in Australia’s tertiary sector.
The peer reviewed research, recently published in journal Education and Training, showcases Flinders rise from 18th position in 2015 into the top 5 in 2019, highlighting NVI’s industry leading capabilities in entrepreneurship ecosystems.
The report has highlighted Flinders rapid capability growth in the field, with the New Venture Institute playing a key role in embedding global best practice initiatives.
The age of start-ups, innovation and disruption has triggered an increase in the number of universities offering entrepreneurship courses, and the New Venture Institute has been recognised for its focus on creating start-ups, acceleration and capability building, according to report authors Alex Maritz, Quan Nguyen and Martin Bliemel.
“The New Venture Institute focuses on three areas of I&E education: creating start-ups, acceleration and capability building. This is done in a holistic, experiential, immersive I&E program that speaks to a range of fields, improving the student experience and outcomes upon graduation.”
NVI Director Matt Salier says the results validate the immensely challenging work NVI and the Innovation and Enterprise (INNO) teams, led by Associate Professor Margaret Ledwith and Senior Lecturer Bert Verhoeven, have been doing over the last 3 years to embed a brand of INNO within Flinders.
“The results highlight the foresight of the strategic relationship with Temple, theUBI accelerator award in 2018, and the numerous Incubator support programs we run.”
“The market connectedness is a key differentiator at Flinders, with the combination of accredited and non-accredited cross over in our activities, one of the most dynamic components of the Flinders vision, is at the core of this success.”
“Working hands on with students in accredited programs in the morning, start-up entrepreneurs in the afternoon, and SME CEO’s in the evening is critical to the skill development of all these groups and something unique across the Universities’ assessed.”
