Kaunas University of Technology: Developing Entrepreneurship Education with International Expert Networks

Abstract

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, is one of the leading universities in the country. Initiatives to develop EE at KTU began in 2011. They were driven by the Vice-Rector for Research, professors from the School of Economics and Business, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre, and a business leader. KTU offers two regular EE courses: Technology Entrepreneurship, an elective course for undergraduate students, and Technology Venturing for graduate students. Both target students from KTU’s engineering schools. There are also recurrent extra-curricular activities like an accelerator programme named “Start-up Space”. KTU also supports students in participating in a business plan competition at San José State University (SJU), US. KTU seeks to extend EE offers, curricular as well as extra-curricular. A barrier to extend EE offers at KTU appears to be that it is not considered as a “hard science” by some in the engineering schools. Furthermore, there is competition about credit-bearing courses and about resources. A striking characteristic is that KTU develops EE with comprehensive and targeted support from experts from abroad. Main supporters include Aalto University, Finland, and the US universities of Berkeley and Stanford. KTU considers these universities as world-leading examples of EE at engineering schools. There was also notable support from the US Market Access Centre. Limitations of involving external experts in developing EE were found to be related to funds, time, a necessity to have own experience in entrepreneurship, and a need for adapting foreign approaches to local socio-economic conditions. KTU’s approach may be insightful particularly for other technical universities.