School:University of Technology Sydney
Overview
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) was founded in 1988 and is located in Sydney's tech precinct in NSW, Australia. A modern focus and a drive for innovation has enabled UTS to quickly climb global rankings. UTS jumped almost 200 places in the Times Higher Education rankings over the last seven years (2012-2019) and remains the number one young university (under 50) in Australia. UTS is known as a world leader in transdiciplinary approaches and sustainable futures thinking, with over 45,000 students and almost 4,000 staff. An industry focus with modern courses and state-of-the-art equipment has enabled its degrees and students continue to become more respected worldwide. UTS has shown a passion to continue this movement through its 1 Billion dollar investment to fundamentally change the way that teaching, learning and research is delivered.
UTS Values
UTS is led by five distinct values that shape the vision and strategy of the university:
Discover and share new knowledge and new ways to lead through teaching, research, intellectual debate and use of technology. Engage and collaborate with students, alumni, partners, professions and communities locally and internationally. Empower staff and students to grow, challenge and make a difference. Deliver obligations to staff, students, partners and communities while maintaining high standards and ethical behaviour. Sustain local and global environment, organisational health and the ability to create a positive and viable future.
Vision 2027
Launched in 2017, UTS’ Vision 2027 seeks to catalyze a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship with the university The goals encourage collaboration and creativity in social justice and accessibility; responsible leadership; and excellence in indigenous higher education and research. Students are encouraged to be flexible and resilient through critical thinking, access to impactful learning and transdisciplinary thinking. Students, staff, professionals and partners are connected in through innovation to deliver excellent research with impact through eight university-wide goals.
Lifetime learning Personal learning experience Digital partners New ways of working Precinct, community, partnerships Connected research International profile Social change
In collaboration with the launch of Vision 2027, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Innovation and Enterprise - Professor Glenn Wightwick was appointed to support innovation and connection throughout the university with a focus on entrepreneurship and external engagement. Professor Wightwick oversees the Corporate Relations Centre, Innovation and Entrepreneurship portfolio and 2SER radio/podcast platform.
Promoting Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Degrees and Programs
UTS offers a range of subjects both for undergraduate and postgraduate students that explore the foundations of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. These subjects are designed in a way that students from a vast range of study areas can access to the various forms of ‘design thinking’ based subjects.
As a key component of Vision 2027, student innovation and entrepeneurship is seen as critical to the sucess of students and the university with over 90 distinct subjects that engage I&E principles. UTS recognises eight academic pathways where students can interact with innovation and entrepeneurship as follow.
Entrepreneurial Subjects
Sub-Majors
Online Entrepeneurship Content
Bachelor Degrees
Postgraduate Degrees
Diplomas and Certificates
Business Practice Unit Short Courses
International Opportunities
The faculties that facilitate these pathways include:
Engineering and Information Technology
Business
Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation
Design, Architecture and Building
Arts and Social Sciences
Institute for Sustainable Futures
Science
Law
More information can be found here.
UTS StartNet Map
These pathways are supported by a wider culture of innovation that encourages students to convert creativity in entrepreneurial endeavors. The following UTS StartNet Map explores how entrepreneurial programs and culture are found across several faculties in the univeristy.
Cultural Pathways Fostering Entrepreneurship
UTS is located in Ultimo which is one of the most heavily populated Start-Up areas in Australia. Leveraging this, it has become one of the most innovative and entrepreneurial campuses in Australia. There are various programs implemented by UTS to encourage student entrepreneurship including:
UTS Startups, which is an incubator aimed at mentoring and providing support for any student or recent alumni interested in developing a startup
Awards like UTS Startup peoples choice, Venture Day and many others are aimed at providing extra funding to standout startups
Student-run Innovation and Entrepreneurial Societies on Campus e.g. Enactus & BCII Connect
Hackathons & competitions including Project Pitch, Code2Learn, The Hult Prize and IBISWorld 3P Competition, designed to launch competitive businesses
There are over 160 Incubators, accelerators and pre-accelerators in Australia, however these remain expensive and less acessible to UTS students. As such UTS seeks to promote a culture of entrepreneurship by embedding such thinking in coursework and existing degree programs alongside the startup community.
Each of these programs are trans-disciplinary, with no limitations. The culmination of each of these has enabled UTS to become an active player in the Australian Start-Up Community.
Over the past three years, UTS has also introduced Bachelor and Postgraduate degrees that directly target the core fundamentals of high-level critical and creative thinking, invention, complexity, innovation, future scenario building and entrepreneurship; leading-edge capabilities that are highly valued in the globalised world. A direct industry demand has contributed to the successful implementation of such a vast and diversified portfolio that allows students to combine their core degree (e.g. Business, Engineering) with an innovational based degree.
Encouraging Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship
As a component of the 2027 Vision, UTS is committed to supporting staff with research and learning with a goal of seamless, personalized and relevant education. While staff are also encouraged to engage with industry partners and through innovative research there are fewer resources for startups and entrepreneurship for faculty. Where students (undergraduate and postgraduate) own their own Intellectual Property (IP) from research projects, IP generated by faculty members belongs to the university.
UTS Startups allows faculty to participate if one member of the team is a student. This limits opportunities for external innovation. However, there is a significant focus on encouraging innovation in the classroom environment and through industry partnerships. Opportunities to enhance learner experience (LX) and support academics in the transition to digital learning platforms such as the LX.lab, futures blog and online support platforms. These resources are designed to help academics build knowledge and confidence within the learning.futures mandate. Successful industry partnerships are well recognized across the university and celebrated through technology transfer, and licensing opportunities.
Actively Supporting the Technology Transfer
UTS supports technology transfer in two distinct pathways: students and projects/faculty. Students are encouraged to commercialize research through UTS Startups for work produced independently. Project work by faculty members and researchers is promoted for technology transfer to industry through Intellectual Property (IP) licensing or collaborative agreements in health, data science, sustainability, social futures, and future work and industry. Not all transfers have been technology based and many are the support of policy or advocacy work to the public sector and civil society.
UTS belongs to the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN)and is guided by ATN principles of IP which seek transparent, flexible and user-friendly systems that encourage a range of IP models. These principles actively encourage research that can be commercialized by industry, government and community groups through publicly available policies and templates. The ATN promotes leadership by industry partners throughout the process of technology transfer. For IP with significant commercial value and a clear route to market UTS directly seeks to form a startup with relevant stakeholders or to find potential licensees. However for other IP, UTS promotes ‘Easy Access IP’ which supports the licensing of research with a single page agreement.
Successful commercialization and information transfer ideas from UTS include:
Auspherix- an innovative pharmaceutical company to explore drugs to treat antibiotic resistant infections
Helmedix- a helminth-based approach to treat autoimmune diseases
Sabre Autonomous Solutions- an autonomous grit-blasting robot to clean and prepare steel, stone and concrete in building projects
AustLII- a comprehensive online, open access and free database of Australian legal information
Honey Treatment- an approach to chronic wound treatment through Manuka Honey
Medicare Safety Net- the design of policy to decrease out-of-pocket expenses
Advocacy- collaboration with the Australian government to allocate $300 million for water, sanitation and hygiene in international development
Facilitating University - Industry Collaboration
UTS CareerHub and Internships - Showcasing Innovation
UTS CareerHub helps to link graduating students to industry through ongoing recruitment and an annual student showcaseacross facilities and degrees. The showcase seeks to highlight creative and innovative skill sets of students at UTS for future industry engagements and often coming from the Design and Transdisciplinary Innovation disciplines at UTS. Workforce development is a key priority of industry and UTS seeks to develop well-rounded, creative and critical thinkers that are ready for industry.
Industry Research - Connecting Innovation
Embedded in UTS’ 2027 vision, the university is seeking to research “exemplified by excellence, impact, engagement with global partners, and innovative collaborations that transcend disciplinary and professional boundaries.” The research aims to have economic, cultural, and social impact through mult- and trans-disciplinary approaches leveraging and sustaining partnerships with business, government and civil society. Connected research can occur in three ways:
Contract research for strategic research expertise
Collaborative research partnerships
Consulting services through accessUTS
Collaborative projects such as the Innovative Future of Sydney Trains Customer Serviceare celebrated through the annual UTS Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Research Excellence through Collaboration or Partnership Award. UTS has partnerships with small and medium enterprises, large multinational companies, local, state, federal and international government agencies, non-governmental organizations and charities.
Industry Shaping - University Societies
UTS’s union ‘ACTIVATE’ facilities over 130 Student Societiesfrom all faculties of the university. Many societies focus on connecting students to Industry by running events, hackathons, panels, networking evenings and site tours.
These student led events, facilitated and sponsored by the university provide an alternate method to build Industry contacts to further pursue their career.
The following societies are highly involved with Industry:
Australian Wall Street (AWS)
BCII Connect
Biomedical Engineering Society
Business Society
Cyber Security Society
Economics Society
Enactus
Engineering Society
FinTech Society
HIVE Society
Journalism Society
KYHO Networking
Motorsports Society
Professional Aeronautics and Astronautics Society
Programmers Society
Society of Communication
Student Success Initiative
Tech Society
UTS Connect society
Women in Business
Industry Shaping - Design Studios
The university aims to encourage a number of students to be exposed to a number of projects that are generally implemented in an industry setting. In particular, the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) incorporate mandatory subjects in their course that encourages students to participate in team projects. This is where they have the opportunity to utilise the theoretical skills they have learned in their technical subjects and apply it to real-world projects.
The following subjects below provide some examples of FEIT offers to its students that enables students to work collaboratively in a team:
Software Engineering Studio 1A
Design and Innovation Fundamentals
Integrating Business Perspective
Fundamentals of of Biomedical Engineering Studio A
Industry Shaping - Hackathons and Case Study Sprints
UTS is very proactive in organising design sprints for students. These design based innovation events are mentored by industry professionals, sponsored by corporate companies and offer cash and investment prizes for students to develop their ‘end product or system’ designed during the hackathon.
These hackathons not only stimulate innovation in the students, it develops and grows innovation in the Industries that the hackathon is partnered with.
The following are a list of select Industry based Hackathons run at UTS in the last 2 months that cross university disciplines.
IBISWorld 3P Innovation Competition
Industry Shaping - Influencing Innovation
A final source of UTS’ culture of innovation for industry collaboration comes from the 2SER radio and podcasts. The university's radio hosts podcasts focusing on futures thinking across sectors, social justice, history and culture.
Think: Business Futures podcast
Think: Digital Futures podcast
The Middle podcast- Australia China Relations
ACRI podcast- Australia-China Relations Institute
Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts
UTS’s strategic location supports the engagement with local and regional economic efforts within the precinct (Pyrmont and Ultimo), city of Sydney, region of NSW and beyond. While the university does not have a specific economic development office, the precinct-focus in UTS’ Vision 2027 speaks to the desire for local economic development. The university engages with the Greater Sydney Commission, precinct task forces, community groups, and the City of Sydney to connect with ongoing development work both for economic and philanthropic purposes. Beyond UTS’ engagement in entrepreneurship, technology transfer and industry collaboration in the economic development arena, such development has physical, and virtual aspects.
Virtual Spaces
Leveraging the learning.futures approach of education, UTS has a strong movement towards virtual learning and collaboration spaces. This opens opportunities for local and regional collaboration through podcastsandopen source courses.
Physical Spaces
Physical spaces in UTS function as catalysts for innovation and entrepreneurship and are supported by over 1 billion dollars of recent infrastructure investment. Vision2027 envisions the UTS campus and facilities as spaces for public and community engagement as highlighted in the following four strategic outcomes.
- Build Australia’s first Indigenous Residential Collegeto support Indigenous student participation and success in higher education.
- Expand innovation spaces such as ProtoSpace, Data Arenaand Tech Labto be more accessible to industry partners, civil society and government.
- Develop co-working spaces in the tech precinct and UTS facilities in Botany and Western Sydney.
- Design local engagements across Sydney that support lifelong learning.
Landscape Canvas
Contents
Related Links
See the 2018 Autumn (Fall) UTS UIF video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13KUDvclG4M
UIF @ UTS
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