Change the world

04/10/2024

Universities need to be more than institutions of learning, teaching and engagement – they also need to drive innovation and entrepreneurship. This was one of the key messages shared at the Business Incubation Web Association (BIWA) conference on business innovation and incubation in Gqeberha from 2 to 4 October. 

 

Business Incubation Web Association chairperson Dr Thobekani Lose, head of the University's Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator, and Acting Dean of Students Vuyo Bongela, at the International BIWA Conference this week; Young entrepreneurs at the BIWA conference included, from left, Winston Letwaba, Nomathamsanqa Khambi, Aviwe Jordaan and Anita Sodladla

Hosted by Nelson Mandela University, Walter Sisulu University, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and Adapt IT, the three-day conference covered a range of topics.

These included how to commercialise university research, funding strategies for startups, 4IR transformation into business incubation, infusing entrepreneurship into higher education, building effective industry partnerships and provincial government strategies to align business incubation and innovation.

Speakers from Mandela, WSU and CPUT opened the conference with incisive analysis of the challenges South Africa faces.

Mandela University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, People and Operations Luthando Jack formally introduced BIWA as a “pioneering network”.

“It is a strategic collaborative formed by the three universities, and what inspired us to embark on this venture was that there is no single individual, discipline or faculty capable of solving the complex, multilayered societal challenges that we face,” said Mr Jack.

He highlighted the danger posed by South Africa’s staggeringly high unemployment statistics.

“By 2025, the continent will have a population of more than one billion and young people will be in the majority. We must harness this demographic dividend and its potential because if we do not it may turn into a demographic disaster.

“We have young people, we are a young country, and we are very close to demographic disaster.

“50% of our youth are unemployed in SA. If they are sitting on at home daily, that is a revolution in the making.

“We still have a long way to go but we are championing entrepreneurship, and are deliberate in positioning ourselves as an entrepreneurial University.

“The majority of shops on campus are small enterprises run by students, and some of our students employ fellow students.”

WSU Executive Dean of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Prof Thabisani Ndlovu said that universities needed to take their knowledge off campus and share it with the surrounding community.

He said he doubted that the current efforts at South African institutions of higher learner were enough.

“We are here, as we should be, but we also ought to start thinking seriously about other factors that can count. We are trying to alert students to the importance of entrepreneurship,” said Prof Ndlovu, citing a new course on the subject at WSU.

“It has several components and one of them does not necessarily have to do with entrepreneurship, but thinking about money, dealing with money.”

The hope, he said, was that many difficult questions that could stifle creativity around how to make money “might actually fall away”.

CPUT Executive Director in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor Prof Henriette Hay-Swemmer went straight to the point, outlining what universities could – and should – do to breach the gap between research and theory, and what business actually needed from graduates.

She quoted the late Steve Jobs who said “stay hungry, stay foolish”, noting that this summed up the spirit of entrepreneurship and business innovation.

“We have a long way to go from just being centres of teaching, learning, and research. Why do I say this?” she asked.

Of those who are unemployed in South Africa, 73% are under the age of 25, making the need for entrepreneurship “more urgent than ever before”.

A qualification was not a job guarantee either, said Prof Hay-Swemmer, as the most recent data showed that nearly 800 000 graduates from tertiary institutions were either seeking employment or unemployed.

“We train students to be employees rather than employment creators.

“My question to universities is, what are we doing? The days of being an ‘ivory tower’ are over and the best way to predict the future is to invent it. University leadership must foster a more supportive environment for developing the necessary skills and mindsets.

“Universities should become the focal point of entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems that involve not only the university community, but businesses, public administration and civil society.

“If you really want to drive business incubation, think outside the region, think nationally and think globally.”

Jack said the three universities would continue their partnership on BIWA, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular, Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.

“We cannot tackle these complex challenges of sustainable development if we do not partner,” he said.

“Our intention is the have this conference annually and out of these shared experiences, we can contribute to knowledge centred in Africa.”

Contact information
Primarashni Gower
Director: Communication
Tel: 0415043057
Primarashni.Gower@mandela.ac.za