Priorities:Erasmus University Rotterdam Student Priorities
1. Creating more awareness about entrepreneurship as an option after graduation and during the studies According to the statistics made available to us, only 2 % of the students at EUR choose to take the entrepreneurial route upon graduation. However, the number of successful entrepreneurs is still unknown given the size of this student sample. We believe this might not be due to the fact that students would not want to become an entrepreneur. Rather, they do not even consider it an option during the course of their time here at EUR.
The primary reason behind this is the lack of awareness about the entrepreneurial spirit our university boasts. We as UIF candidates hope to change this and bring a lot more awareness to how students, regardless of their faculty, could bring about change towards positive societal impact through an entrepreneurial approach. Through this, students have an opportunity to discover new interests and abilities. Moreover, the university also has an opportunity to work closely with students towards the Strategy 2024 (an initiative by the university).
We hope to increase awareness about entrepreneurship as an option by hosting various different events campus-wide, that revolve around the theme of entrepreneurship. We can ensure that through our other strategic priorities, such as increasing collaboration of our entrepreneurship ecosystem, we also create awareness.
2. Connecting students with opportunities to develop themselves and their interests outside of academics Another common idea that all of our fellows shared was the fact that there are a lot of opportunities to develop yourself outside of your study programme at Erasmus University. However, from the students that we talked and interacted with, many say that these opportunities are sometimes not promoted well enough, that there is too many to know where to start from or that they were not aware of certain opportunities that are available to them. Thus, we have made this one of our strategic priorities- to enhance the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and the extra-curricular activities offered at our university, by trying to make students more aware of and engaged with them.
3.Connecting the entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus Erasmus University Rotterdam is famous worldwide for its business and economic faculties. However, students pursuing their degrees in different departments can also find various opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills, starting with multiple student organizations all the way to entrepreneurship hubs such as Erasmus Enterprise. The area of improvement that we, as the Innovation Fellows, observed in that area of being students at EUR is the lack of connection between those various organizations. Once a student finds and joins one of them, it is sporadic that they also look for another one, therefore missing some of the opportunities that are unique to each organization. Furthermore, the organizations themselves rarely cooperate in spheres that directly involve their student members.
One of our aims for this academic year is to create a strong network between those organizations in order to encourage them to cooperate on a more regular basis. When this happens, students of all backgrounds will have access to even more self-development opportunities tailored to their areas of interest.
We plan to achieve this goal by organizing networking events for members of the various associations and additional events that would also serve as meeting spaces for all of the entrepreneurial-minded Erasmians.
4. Connecting graduating students with alumni At Erasmus University, there is a large emphasis on helping incoming students manage the transition to university. Most incoming students that use these resources find them extremely useful, as the beginning of university is often times a hard transition. Another often difficult transition is the one at the end of university- students are faced with a lot of uncertainty and an exciting, but often daunting freedom to choose whatever path they would like their life to head in. From this, we have created our fourth student priority, which is to help aid the graduating students with resources, such as alumni who have graduated from their same programme, to navigate their post-university transition.
Related links