Innovation and entrepreneurship – Promising examples at the Hungarian Higher Education

06-12-2017

News | Higher education

Budapest, 29 November 2017: Hungarian Minister of State for Education, EC and OECD launched the new report on “Supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Higher Education in Hungary”. At the professional event organized by the Ministry of Human Capacities and Tempus Public Foundation, the best practices of domestic co-operation between higher education institutions and their partners were also presented.


Innovation and entrepreneurship – Promising examples in the Hungarian Higher Education

Budapest, 29 November 2017 - Hungarian Minister of State for Education, EC and OECD launched the new report on “Supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Higher Education in Hungary”. At the professional event organized by the Ministry of Human Capacities and Tempus Public Foundation, the best practices of domestic co-operation between higher education institutions and their partners were also presented.

The report presents evidence-based analysis of current strategies and practices in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Hungary towards a value-creating use of knowledge resources for innovation and entrepreneurship. The analysis and recommendations are highly relevant for policy makers and HEI leaders in other countries. Increased attention to innovation and entrepreneurship both from public policy actors and HEI leadership has triggered an incremental change process in the organisational culture of HEIs and a new approach to education and research for students and staff.

The OECD and the European Commission joint report on “Supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Higher Education in Hungary” is the result of the HEInnovate Country Review of Hungary which was undertaken by the OECD and the European Commission in co-operation with the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary and the Tempus Public Foundation in the period December 2015 to November 2016.

The report was launched on 29 November 2017 by the Minister of State for Education of Hungary Laszlo Palkovics, the Deputy Director General of the Directorate-General for Education an Culture of the European Commission Jens Nymand Christensen and the Head of Division, Local Employment, Skills and Social Innovation, and Head of the Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED), OECD Sylvain Giguere.

 

 

The report shows that to effectively support entrepreneurship and innovation, higher education institutions need to be entrepreneurial and innovative themselves in how they organise education, research and engagement with business and the wider world. Several higher education institutions in Hungary have taken a proactive approach and piloted new ways of integrating new teaching methods into the curriculum, developing new activities to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindset, supporting start-up’s, strengthening collaboration with business and the wider world, and taking a more international approach to HEI activities.

The country review has had already concrete policy impact. The Ministry of Human Capacities, in collaboration with the Tempus Public Foundation, has developed a set of practical recommendations and support mechanisms for Hungarian HEIs. An expert group with representatives from various HEIs, innovative companies and various policy actors is supporting this work.

On 29th November 2017 at the conference „Innovative higher education – regional development and networks” the Hungarian HEInnovate network celebrated its 1st anniversary with the presentation of proposed action plan of the Ministry of Human Capacities and promising good practices of Hungarian HEIs.

 

New initiatives of 3rd mission activities of HEIs were also presented, for instance cooperation between Pannon University and IBM on smart city solutions, Mobilis interactive open science centre at Széchenyi University. The Proability project of Corvinus University and Salva Vita financed through the EEA Scholarship Programme promotes the employment of people with disabilities through the training of employers. Another excellent practice is the social entrepreneurship incubator programme at University of Pecs and Y Community Center partly realised in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. In the RDI and innovation sessions apart from innovation strategies of HEIs, multinational companies like National Instruments and BorsodChem Wanhua also presented their innovative cooperation with HEIs.

Participants and all parties expressed their interest in the further development of the Hungarian HEInnovate network with exchange of good practices, PLAs and workshops, to open a dialogue on reaction and implementation of the report recommendations and the Hungarian Higher Education Strategy. The Ministry of Human Capacities and Tempus Public Foundation confimed that they will support the process of mutual policy learning in the international HEInnovate network as well.

Read online or download the report from OECD website: “Supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Higher Education in Hungary” 

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HEInnovate is a key initiative to make Europe more innovative and entrepreneurial as it supports individual higher education institutions in their ongoing transformation. The free, online HEInnovate Tool (http://www.HEInnovate.eu), supports higher education institutions to organise strategic discussions and debate around entrepreneurship and innovation. A wide range of stakeholders can be easily involved from within the higher education institution (leadership, staff, students, academic and administrative staff) and the local economy. Easy-to-read graphs show where stakeholders agree or disagree and provide a basis for strategic discussions and debate in board meetings, the senate or public events. The online tool is available in 24 languages; it is currently used by more than 800 HEIs around the world.

To learn more about HEInnovate please visit: https://heinnovate.eu

Last modified: 12-06-2019