[Podcast] Entrepreneurial University: Innovating Training Programs Needs to Follow Market Needs – Part 1

3 July, 2024

From the experiences in building and innovating training programs with the purpose of equipping UEH students with the knowledge regarding entrepreneurship and achieve positive results, Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung – Deputy President of University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) – shared the advantages and the challenges that Universities aiming towards the Entrepreneurial university model may encounter.

Question: Many experts believe that universities aiming to become startup universities is an inevitable trend in the world, including Vietnam. Dear Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung, what is opinion on this issue?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: The concept of Entrepreneurial university can be understood in various aspects and by different studies; however, to approach the concept and learn entrepreneurship, one should go into the mission of a university including: training, research and contributing to the development of one society. The first two missions have been the most important missions of a university; afterthat, through training and research, they contribute to the economic development of the society in a region. The Entrepreneurial university model of University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) aims to train human resources with the potential entrepreneurial thinking as well as the ability to innovate in creating values that can contribute to the society. Concurrently, it brings research results and technology transfer that contribute to socio-economic development.

Question: University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) has promoted innovative startup activities for nearly 10 years. From your viewpoint, Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung, has the ecosystem promoting these UEH’s innovation activities been completed yet?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City is one of the key national universities, especially in terms of economics and management majors. Most UEH students have a certain mindset regarding entrepreneurship and innovation so as to carry out socio-economic activities right after graduation. 10 years ago, UEH was aware of the importance of conveying innovative entrepreneurial thinking to learners because this knowledge will be applied in not only the fields of economics and management but also all other fields. UEH initially introduced knowledge regarding starting a business and business entrepreneurship in all training programs and fields. We do also realize that one subject cannot solve all the problems of innovative entrepreneurial thinking in one generation; therefore, we need to build a sustainable ecosystem with the innovation-transferring entrepreneurship capacity to learners.

In the last 5 years, UEH has had field trips to Korean and Singaporean Universities with the purpose of learning models, applying and cooperating in building UEH Innovation Institute. From the implementing these activities, it is to form a complete innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. After 5 years, we have achieved certain results as follows: Incubating more than 116 startup businesses, of which 20% have become businesses while 10% successfully called for capital of 500,000 USD. In addition, there are ecosystems connecting with innovative businesses abroad through partner schools, creating opportunities for startups to exchange and to learn from each other’s experiences. A number of studio labs have been built to serve the innovative startup ecosystem. With a network of more than 250,000 alumni, we do firmly believe that this will be an important resource to promote the innovative start-up ecosystem at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics

Question: One of the difficulties faced by Universities today is the connection among the investment funds towards developing student start-up projects. What is UEH’s experience in this issue?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: Regarding connecting with investors, every year, UEH organizes a Demo Day program to create opportunities for start-ups to introduce their business models to investors. We also invite Investors to participate throughout the startup incubation process. In particular, UEH has the Community Connection – Knowledge Spread – Sustainable Action Program and the GIVING program – a model similar to what other prestigious universities in the world are implementing. In the GIVING program, we have one specific category – business connection for startup and innovation idea incubation activities.

Question: What is the rate of students starting a successful business at UEH?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: We do not count the percentage of students who have successfully started their own businesses. Our UEH KPI does not depend on how many start-up businesses are trained or how many students start their businesses after graduating. On the other hand, one important UEH mission is to train a team with an innovative entrepreneurial spirit. When they enter the labor market, they can become core factors in innovative startups and UEH learners themselves have enough knowledge to establish their own innovative start-up businesses, contributing to the socio-economic development.

Question: If evaluated in accordance with the typical criteria of a start-up university, has, to what extent, UEH achieved?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: To develop a startup university model, UEH vision, mission as well as leadership and determination are some important factors. UEH is one among other Universities that has always been a pioneer in implementing innovation from university administration, improving training programs to promoting internationally published research or contributing to solving problems of a locality. UEH’s development strategy for the 2025-2030 period identifies innovative entrepreneurship as an important step in the multidisciplinary and sustainable university development roadmap.

The second factor is concerning UEH’s organizational structure and culture. UEH’s organization is being planned to meet needs and capture signals so as to solve market problems. This is an important factor for UEH to promote the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in training, research, and management. Recently, UEH invited an innovation expert from Stanford University to be an innovation director advisor. We do hope to build an innovation strategy for the 2025 – 2030 period.

The third element is regarding UEH training program. UEH students, in addition to business start-up subjects, are also equipped with necessary subjects and skills for 10 years listed as design thinking skills, data science skills, necessary soft skills, understanding skills and sustainable development skills, psychology skills, entrepreneurship and innovation skills. From this foundation, learners can quickly respond to the vibrantly changing working environments.

Question: Some experts’ opinions are as follows: To successfully build a startup university model, it is necessary to change from specific and substantive actions, of which the training program for students is a key factor that needs to be prioritized for innovation. Dear Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung, can you share your viewpoint regarding this opinion?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: In the current trend with the strong development of technology and diverse uncertain factors, the ability to solve problems must depend on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature. An in-depth knowledge cannot solve the problem, it requires convergence and integration of a lot of knowledge from economics, management, technology and art. Therefore, in recent years, along with the multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary university strategy, UEH’s training programs have integrated a lot of knowledge, beyond specialized knowledge, especially general knowledge. The basic formula of a training program accounts for approximately 80% of the training volume of the programs. We have integrated knowledge of sustainability, technology, soft skills, design thinking, psychology and even arts-related subjects to equip UEH students with the important foundation to meet the 10 crucial skills for the future labor market. This specialized knowledge is also the interwoven knowledge of various different industries, especially, the fields of finance, accounting or banking, all of which have technology applications.

Question: How can it be ensured that curriculum innovation refers to not only the content but also teaching methods in improving UEH students’ quality?

Associate Professor, PhD. Bui Quang Hung: In this innovative startup ecosystem, besides UEH learners, the role of UEH lecturers is very important as they convey not only theoretical knowledge but also knowledge regarding practical experiences in terms of the process of starting a business and going to work in practice. In addition, UEH lecturers bring inspiration and attitude to learners. In terms of the language of entrepreneurship, these mentors and UEH students do participate in the innovation and entrepreneurship process. Every lecturer has an innovative entrepreneurial mindset; therefore, we would like all UEH lecturers to undergo a design thinking course. We invite other experts in design thinking to train UEH lecturers as they, in the future, will be the core of the design thinking subject applied to all training programs at UEH.

This is an article in the series of articles spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the “Research Contribution For All – Nghiên Cứu Vì Cộng Đồng” message, UEH cordially invites dear readers to look forward to the upcoming UEH Research Insights No. #115.

News & photos: Author, UEH Department of Marketing & Communication