by Sebastian-Aurelian Ștefănigă
Abstract: The West University of Timisoara in Romania is using HEInnovate as part of their mission to become a more entrepreneurial institution, taking inspiration from the self-assessment, webinars, and training sessions.
How does the West University of Timisoara foster entrepreneurship at an institutional level?
The West University of Timisoara is a comprehensive university located in western Romania and is made up of 12 faculties spanning a diverse array of disciplines. The university population is composed of more than 15,000 students and about 1,300 administrative and teaching staff. The university has achieved the status of an entrepreneurial university in Romania, which includes fulfilling certain responsibilities such as establishing a student society for entrepreneurship. This student society includes a board of university staff members, external partners from companies and start-ups, and students. The society organises a variety of events. The university also implements a variety of European projects (supported by the European Commission) to support students in developing their start-up and business ideas. Some of this budget is allocated to organising hackathons and incubators as well.
What is your role, and how do you and your faculty contribute to the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem?
I, Professor Sebastian-Aurelian Ștefănigă, am a part of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science and vice-dean for industrial collaboration in international affairs. The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science comprises about 60 members of the teaching staff. The university’s focus on entrepreneurship is applied throughout its various faculties. The Head Rectorate at the university made the decision to include entrepreneurship in the curricula in each programme of study at the university. The head of the Department of Teacher Training has conducted research with his staff, developing a teaching and learning brand at the university level, which has a focus on entrepreneurship. My Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science organises meetings with industry leaders each month to discuss curricula and facilitate activities to support students and their projects. Recently, a debate was organised for the students from this Faculty with more than ten CEOs in attendance. The discussion focused on the topic of how to become an entrepreneur and the accompanying challenges. The Faculty of Business also has the capability to use a virtual environment to help students visualise their business ideas.
How did you learn about HEInnovate, and what kind of HEInnovate activity did you take part in?
I became aware of HEInnovate through Dr. Alexandra Petcu, the head of the Center for Innovation and Technological Transfer. Dr. Petcu was already familiar with HEInnovate, and she referred me to the HEInnovate newsletter and the events and tools that HEInnovate offers. I follow the HEInnovate newsletter and have attended several HEInnovate webinars, including “Promoting equity and inclusion through innovation in higher education”, "The internationalisation of higher education: The role of innovation,” “Deep Tech in Higher Education”, and the Digital Train-the-Trainers Session.
What were the most useful or beneficial aspects of engaging with HEInnovate?
I found the stories that I heard at the webinars to be particularly useful, as they were concrete actions that could serve as an example for best practices at The West University of Timisoara. I hope to form connections with members of the HEInnovate community in the future, perhaps through attending an in-person Train the Trainers session.
Did you or your institution implement any changes after engaging with HEInnovate?
The university has been developing a concrete plan to become more entrepreneurial, which involves HEInnovate. The Center for Innovation and Technological Transfer and I, along with several other colleagues from the university, have been filling out the HEInnovate self-assessment over time in order to measure whether our priorities include an entrepreneurial focus and whether sufficient financial resources are allocated to achieve this. We are also attempting to empower our students through the Center for Innovation and Technological Transfer to take the self-assessment to measure their perspective on the university’s focus on entrepreneurship. The university was also a co-partner in the Innovation Capacity Building in UNITA (INNOUNITA) project under the EIT HEI Initiative, which included taking the self-assessment as part of the application process.
Are there any plans to continue or expand your work/the work of your institution based on your engagement with HEInnovate?
The university’s goals going forward are to secure funds and find a physical setting to establish an Entrepreneurship Centre, as the main university headquarters is at full capacity. This will likely be located at the planned new campus for West University of Timisoara, which has not yet been built. We are also encouraging more students to complete the self-assessment in a new way: ahead of beginning their internships and once more after completing their internships, to see if their views on entrepreneurship have changed over the course of the internship.