Capacitating Leadership for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

BY: .

UKZN hosted a leaders’ workshop aimed at strengthening the Institution’s commitment to becoming an entrepreneurial University.

Attended by deputy vice-chancellors, deans, academic leaders and professional services leadership, the workshop explored how innovation and entrepreneurship can be driven by institutional leaders through dialogues with the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) experts.

In his welcome address, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Professor Anil Chuturgoon, reflected on the EDHE as an important structure that helps students foster an entrepreneurial culture equipping them with the right mindset to be job creators rather than employment seekers. 

Chuturgoon described the support given by the EDHE as an integrative programme that helped transform universities into entrepreneurial institutions, providing strategic direction, promoting inclusivity, strengthening entrepreneurship development and capacity building, and being a catalyst for economic transformational and societal impact.

Said Chuturgoon: “Overall the EDHE contributes critically to the strategic role of South African universities and social economic development by enabling them to produce graduates who are capable entrepreneurs and innovators, thus addressing unemployment and economic stagnation in Higher Education.”

Director of Entrepreneurship at Universities South Africa (USAf) Dr Edwell Gumbo highlighted how the EDHE had been developed in 2018 by the Department of Higher Education and Training as a means of addressing graduate unemployment.

Gumbo highlighted the EDHE’s three spheres of focus - student entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in academia and entrepreneurial universities. He also listed its priority areas which include: equipping students for economic participation; equipping academic staff across disciplines to nurture the entrepreneurial mind and skillsets of students; and developing entrepreneurial universities as innovative ecosystems where entrepreneurial activity is supported, and institutionalised.

Chairperson of the EDHE Community of Practice for Economic Activation Offices (EAO) Ms Jayde Barendse said the role of EAOs is to provide an institutional centralised platform for communicating and reporting all entrepreneurial initiatives and connecting them with the relevant stakeholders.

Director of UKZN’s Innovation Unit Dr Nhlanhla Msomi focused on the importance of driving innovation within the Global South. Mentioning how the University is structed in terms of innovation, he showcased the various projects in the pipeline and highlighted the importance of markets and developing relationships for innovations to be of value.

Deputy Director for the Technology Transfer Office at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) Mr Mandla Hlongwane reviewed the sustainability model his institution is following in technology transfer through its intellectual property management, innovation support, stakeholder engagement and capacity building initiatives.

UKZN Student Entrepreneurship Manager Mr Khutšo Ramontja recounted ENSPIRE’s evolution as a programme launched for budding student entrepreneurs that has gone on to provide skills development training (enterprise start-up), incubation (student trading pods), events (accelerator masterclass), seminars (small business funding colloquium) and business exhibitions.

Speaking about the progress made with these endeavours, Ramontja said: “For the past six years in a row, UKZN has had a student entrepreneur representing the University at the EDHE Intervarsity National Competition.”

The workshop included appearances by UKZN students: national EDHE Intervarsity winner 2024 Ms Ayavuya Sibisi, and regional EDHE intervarsity winner 2025 Mr Luyanda Mchunu, who shared their challenges and experiences as student entrepreneurs as well as ENACTUS President Ms S’nethemba Sithole, who highlighted her organisation’s role in championing student entrepreneurship.

Dr Mlondi Vilakazi of UKZN’s Graduate School of Business and Leadership (GSB&L) reflected on the Social Entrepreneurs Programme as a provincial based initiative that has supported and capacitated over 250 participants who are committed to economic development within their communities.

Professor Thea van der Westhuizen of the School of Commerce and Community of Practice Lead in South Africa shared background on the entrepreneurial ecosystems that have been established with participating African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya through the British Council: Innovation of African Universities Programme and encouraged the participation of academics in available collaboration opportunities.

Dr Patricia Opondo of the School of Music discussed the Wadhwani Foundation as a capacitation programme that offered successful initiatives in the arts, igniting change in the Global South and championing entrepreneurship.

Dean and Head of the School of Commerce Professor Stephen Mutula explored how using technology, blockchain and open learning in line with the legal policy and framework could form valuable interdisciplinary research, teaching and learning teams.

Dean of Research, Professor Neil Koorbanally reviewed how research outputs could be used for academic, societal and economic impact through incentivisation and multidisciplinary approaches, while Pro-Vice Chancellor of Student Services Professor Msizi Mkhize shared various tools available for curriculum innovation such as Riipen and the Pedagogy Wheel Version Seven.

In his closing remarks, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of College: Law and Management Studies, Professor Ernest Khalema, thanked the speakers and participants, recounting UKZN’s stance as an Institution resolute in its support of student entrepreneurs.

The event had poignant discussions on how to use entrepreneurship and Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) as work-integrated learning frameworks to give students the experience required in the workplace; how to move away from incentivising patents to incentivising commercialisation; and how to institutionalise entrepreneurship programmes for a shift in mindset and institutionalised change to be achieved.

Words: Hlengiwe Khwela

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini