In 2019 QUT saw potential students choosing between enrolling in higher education or growing and scaling a venture they started at high school. This was problematic given research showing positive ROIs in higher education, compared with poor startup survival rates. Indeed, Universities Australia argues, “In present value terms, the average bachelor level graduate accrues an additional $142,000 in post-tax earnings over their lifetime ($674,000 when undiscounted). Relative to the average person with no post-school qualification, this represents a discounted earnings premium of 31% (37% when undiscounted)” (Deloitte, 2020, p. i).

The global first, QUT Budding Entrepreneur Scholarships rectify this problem. They ensure potential students do not see study and venturing as mutually exclusive. Over 3 years of any single or double undergraduate degree, students receive financial support (totalling AUD24,000), one-on-one and group mentoring, access to paid student ambassador roles, networking opportunities and priority access to learning programs delivered by QUT Entrepreneurship and by the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, as part of the QUT-MIT strategic collaboration.

Since 2021, 18 scholarships have been awarded, funded by QUT and industry. Four named scholarships are funded by:
• Matt Fairhurst, Outstanding Alumni and founder of Skedulo (post-money valuation approx. AUD450M);
• Marie Mortimer, QUT Alumni and founder Loans.com.au (AUD6B in loans under management);
• Dr John Puttick, former QUT Council member; and
• John Stainton, founder John Stainton Productions,
but more are in negotiation. In 2023, two Budding Entrepreneur Bursaries (AUD1500) were awarded to students in the Diploma in Entrepreneurship inaugural cohort.

Learning 1: Focus
At QUT, entrepreneurship is defined as ‘the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources currently controlled’. We focus on entrepreneurial mindset - what it takes to see and realise ‘opportunity’, to engage in ‘pursuit’, understand and organise ‘resources’. This wide definition makes sense to leaders, to faculty across disciplines and to students given its utility within and across careers in all contexts.

Learning 2: Experiment
The process of building an entrepreneurial venture is one of customer discovery and validation and this is no different to creating an entrepreneurial university. What do students need today and for the future? What support is required for engagement and commercialisation activity across disciplines? What are the ways to engage the entrepreneurial community? How to communicate impact and effect? What to measure? There are no fixed answers to these questions and so it has been a process of experimentation, trial, success and failure, and ongoing learning to know what can work to create and add value for participants.

Learning 3: Contribute
QUT’s research, whether through academic engagement with industry or commercialisation activity makes a substantial impact in industry. Students start ventures while studying and alumni create innovative ventures of global scale. Graduates with an entrepreneurial mindset are employed across Australia and the world. We play a critical role in the development of thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems, offering help and by being generous in our support of the community. What we contribute is returned with goodwill, through an array of engagements and support.

Entrepreneurship is a priority in the university strategy – QUT Connections 2023-2027 - and the future focus is on embedding entrepreneurial thinking, entrepreneurship curriculum and support for entrepreneurial action across the institution. Initiatives include:

1. Creating and offering entrepreneurship micro-credentials while expanding the QUT Entrepreneurship extra-curricular learning offerings.

2. Building a common multidisciplinary curriculum (QUT You) for all undergraduate students where one of the 10 units in development is The Art of Pitching. Students will be required to take 4 of these 10 units from 2025.

3. Negotiations with industry through QUT’s Development Office for new industry funds to support the Budding Entrepreneur Scholarship. This is a powerful means to recognise and support student entrepreneurial activity and, when launched, was the only scholarship of its type globally.

4. Planning for an open access Maker Space in which members of the QUT community can develop prototypes and MVPs. This will be a collaboration between many parts of the university including QUT Entrepreneurship, QUT Library and faculties, especially Engineering and Creative Industries and industry.

5. Focussing commercialisation activity to ensure SHAPE discipline academics better understand commercialisation processes while academics from all disciplines are supported in efforts to create value for others through their research and innovations.

6. Upskilling staff in an Entrepreneurial Mindset module that develops employee leadership and capability, which was launched by QUT Human Resources earlier this year.

7. Partnering with the ecosystem to bring in guests, speakers, visitors, entrepreneurs in residence, advisors, and mentors who share expertise and knowledge.