Priorities:University de Montevideo Student Priorities

Overview

The University of Montevideo (UM) started off in 1986 as the Institute of Business Studies of Montevideo (IEEM). Some months later the IEEM started a postgraduate in business law. From there and on the IEEM continued incorporating new courses mixing law and business, such as seminar in management, business administration, master's degree in business law and much more.

It wasn't until April 29 of 1997 that the IEEM was approved to function as a university and from there it's known as the Universidad de Montevideo. ​

Now the UM has 7 different faculties :
- Law School
- Faculty of Business Science  and Economics
- Faculty of Engineering
- Faculty of Communication
- Faculty of Biomedical Sciences
- Business School (IEEM)
- Center of leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators

Actually the UM offers 20 different major for undergraduate students and 28 majors for graduate students, through the colleges listed above, also it has been ranked the best university in Uruguay by the QS ranking.

The number of professors and faculty members fostering innovation and entrepreneurship has been growing in the last couple of years. This whole new spirit lead to the creation of Initium. This center has created different courses and workshops stimulating students and professors to develop new skills and attitudes with an innovation and entrepreneurship mindset. It is also a place for connection between students, alumni entrepreneurs, accelerators and other extracurricular entities.There are also other courses that stimulate innovation in their areas, such as Engineering Labs or Investment Projects for example.

Strategy #1 - Create an entrepreneurial club of UM students

Despite there is a center of leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators at the University, we find a weak innovation and entrepreneurship culture among students, especially because the same students go to the workshops and talks, and there are few. Many students don’t know about the existence of Initium or they don’t take advantage of it privileges. So we think that if create an independent entrepreneurial club with UM students, this could change.

But not any student can get in. It must be something that make this club special. So it would be a pre-selection. The judges (at the beginning would be us: Cecilia, Romina, Matías and Luis) must see an entrepreneurial spirit, and show that they could be an agent of change. Being a member of this club would be also a privilege for the CVs of the members. In the club, the members can work for projects or areas (logistics, communication, fundraising, etc). Then, the same members can reclute students for specific projects. It would count with Initium’s support, but it would be independent, so it must have a director that at the beginning would be probably one of us, or a graduate student. The director can also make recommendation letters for the members which would help in finding a job.

The meetings would take place in ZROOMs (classrooms that already exist in the UM, that is similar to Stanford classrooms) or even better, the Design Thinking Room that we’re also planning to do (see Strategy Six), once a week, the day that all the members agree about.

- Step #1:Talk to UM authorities and see what type of benefits the group members can have. Romina will handle this task by the end of March.
- Step #2: Create a selection commitment who will pick the members of the club by interviews. Romina will handle this task at the beginning of April.
- Step #3: Make a communication campaign to invite members to the club. Cecilia will handle this task at the middle of April.

Strategy #2

Because this is a good way to engage students to this sort of activities. It’s not the same that Initium or UM’s authorities make innovation and entrepreneurship events because it’s less personal and more academic. If UM students made this events, everything would be more fun and informal, and it would attract much more their attention. We see that many students doesn’t even give the opportunity to this new world, because they have a wrong concept about it. This would be a great way to open their minds.

The social events would be organized by the entrepreneurial club that we mentioned at strategy one. We need to be different from the other networking events that already exist in Uruguay, where the entrepreneurs talk between them or with the same people. For that reason we thought about tables, where in each one there is a recognized entrepreneur who is available to answer any question and give advice, and then the guests can rotate to other tables to talk to other entrepreneurs and other guests.

- Step #1: Once the club is created, we will assign mentors to the groups - that the members formed - to guide them with the organization of the events. Romina will handle this task at the beginning of May.*

- Step #2: Find sponsors to afford this events. Romina will handle this task at the end of May.

Related Links

Spring 2017 UIF:

Student 1 (hyperlinked)

Student 2 (hyperlinked)

Student 3 (hyperlinked)

Student 4 (hyperlinked)