Priorities:University of Technology Sydney Student Priorities

Overview

Strategy #1 - Introduce a Featured Startup Company

One of the major issues uncovered during our land scape canvas was student engagement with innovation/ Entrepreneurship. We need to help show the general university population that innovation and Entrepreneurship is for everyone and it can help them in all different ways throughout their life.

To help encourage more involvement by students and therefore improve innovation at UTS, we need better advertisement strategies. We believe the students will respond well to featured Entrepreneurs of the week or month. This way we can prove to current students that Entrepreneurship is something normal and the mind set can help them with their everyday lives.

At the bottom of the advertisement there should be a QR code or website address, where students can find more information about all of the innovation programs offered by UTS. The website which lists them, should list them in stages, starting with small design thinking workshops already run at UTS to the hatchery plus. This way students will be more encouraged to take small steps and do a design thinking workshop.

Another well documented engagement strategy is design thinking workshops. Perhaps we can hold weekly events at the university bar and teach the basics of design thinking. At the moment most students don’t even know what design thinking is, so they are unlikely to go to events at the hatchery. We can provide that basic knowledge, build their fundamentals and act as a gateway to further innovation/ Entrepreneurship studies and actions.

Strategy #2 - Entrepreneurship/Innovation Help Centre

UTS is already encouraging innovation and Entrepreneurship around campus. This is/will lead to the development of many student run start up companies. Student’s fees already go into the HELP centre, where students are able to get assistance for resumes and other job seeking actives.

Maybe a small portion of that money can go into a Startup help centre, where anyone wanting to do a start up company can get some general advice e.g. setting up an ABN….

Strategy #3 - Improving communication of current innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities to students.

During interviews with first year students at UTS we discovered that communication of existing innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities was lacking and potentially resulting in students not attending events or not gaining a proper understanding of the existing opportunities.

As a result we would like to identify methods for improving the communication between innovation resources and students and help connect interested students with events and activities that can help them on their entrepreneurial journeys. Our current prototyping has found that QR codes while initially seaming like a fun and interesting way for students to interact is actually seen as a hindrance and may not be fully utilised as would be expected.

We would like to trial more advertising and communication techniques such as an "innovation board" in a communal area of the university, "abstract links" that get students completing a challenge or game to gain access to a link to information or mass advertising drops using interesting mediums such as bouncy balls with links or slickers found all throughout the university.

By increasing the awareness of students about the existing programs and opportunities both on campus and the surrounding community we hope to increase the innovation and entrepreneurship culture UTS.

Strategy #4

Examining the current ecosystem of our campus, it was clear that the university has recognise a need for students to learn about innovation and entrepreneurship. As a direct response to the demand. The university has introduced incubator-like programs for students and undergraduate courses to support students ongoing and new alike, in this area. There has been many successful programs and it has been well received by students of all disciplines.

However examining the bigger picture, it is clear that these programs overlap and no coherent community was formed between these programs and faculties. One of the problem space this strategy plans to address is the segregated but successful programs the university is producing. How can we conjugate these groups of highly talented people and their ideas to entwine a larger network and form stronger presence of innovation and entrepreneur at the university.

Following from this observation, the University Innovation Fellows plan to host a series of social events in the aim of joining the programs and communities. These social events are designed to cultivate conversations for students and staff members alike. It will be run regularly by students with creativity. Events such as interfaculty debates or startup fairs are a few among ways to get individuals involved.

Ultimate the aim of connecting current communities on campus and allowing new students to find ways to get involved. This strategy hopes to influence the success of other strategies being implemented at the University.