3 ways Singapore University of Technology and Design is training entrepreneurs

The first known entrepreneurs came from New Guinea around 17,000 BCE. Locals traded volcanic glass used to make arrowheads for other daily necessities. Over thousands of years, civilisations have been built on the promise of business.

The President of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) believes that the future of education must be founded on the same principles that gave rise to modern society. “It’s time for us to think about moving the centre of gravity back to skills and attitudes – skills like creative thinking and problem solving; and attitudes like the growth mindset and the entrepreneurial spirit,” Professor Chong Tow Chong said at GovInsider Live 2019.

The university was setup in partnership with MIT, which has been involved in developing its curriculum. Professor Chong discussed how its courses and campus are being designed with the aim of developing their students to become entrepreneurs.

1. Nurturing entrepreneurs

SUTD has integrated entrepreneurship into its four-year curriculum. For instance, the university does not schedule classes on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, so students use the time to explore their own interests outside the formal curriculum. “We return a day a week to the student,” said Prof. Chong. This is part of the university’s efforts to provide a space for students to take risks and build up the “entrepreneurial spirit”.

In their first three semesters, undergraduate students start off with ideating, building and launching their own startup. Students also attend entrepreneurship workshops in ASEAN each year, and they get opportunities to work in a startup in the US and China.

Seniors get to wrap up their undergraduate studies by pitching their ideas to startups. This is part of their capstone project, which is typically sponsored by a company in a related industry, he added.

The university requires all freshmen to stay on campus for a full year. This creates a vibrant environment for students to develop and bounce their ideas off one another, he said. “Don’t underestimate students – they can come up with great things when we give them freedom.”.

This focus on entrepreneurship is shared by other universities in Singapore as well: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University each have their own entrepreneurship programmes, which allows students to take up internships in overseas startups.

2. Multidisciplinary learning

SUTD’s curriculum balances digital skills that are becoming crucial for work with studies of society and history. All students take classes in programming, data statistics, machine learning, AI and other emerging technologies. 22% of the curriculum includes humanities, arts and social science modules – think poetry, early Asian religion, and AI-related ethics.

The university teaches students design thinking principles to help them develop better products and solutions. Most students complete over 20 design projects in the course of their four-year study. “We make sure that design permeates almost everything we do in the university. That way, we address a lot of human needs,” Prof. Chong explained.

SUTD has built multidisciplinary learning into its curriculum using an “outside-in” approach. “We first asked what the world needs,” said Prof. Chong. The university then designs the curriculum around these needs.

3. Encouraging creative collaboration

It’s been said that two heads are better than one. SUTD has taken this principle to a higher level with their classroom design. The tables and chairs feature a modular design, so students can easily shift from a small group discussion to a hands-on experiment. This encourages creative thinking and problem solving while students develop communication skills, explained Prof. Chong.

This “flipped classroom” design has changed the way students learn: they are teaching and learning from their peers. The low student to faculty ratio – there is one professor for every 11 students – has also enabled more discourse and discussion.

Businesses have come a long way since the Paleolithic times. The focus has shifted from acquiring daily necessities to delivering impactful solutions for society. SUTD wants to equip its graduates with the skills and mindset to adapt to this.