Finalist

Young Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award

Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Finalist of the Young Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award

Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Belgium

"From student-entrepreneurs to impact-makers: KdG excels in entrepreneurial engagement"


Engage on social media

@kdghogeschool
(Official KdG Twitter account (in Dutch))
https://www.linkedin.com/school/karel-de-grote-hogeschool/
(Official LinkedIn account KdG (in Dutch))
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kdg-ondernemerscentrum/
(KdG Entrepreneurial Center account (in Dutch))
https://www.instagram.com/kdghogeschool/
(Official Instagram account KdG (in Dutch))
https://www.facebook.com/kareldegrotehogeschool
(Official Facebook account KdG (in Dutch))
https://www.facebook.com/ondernemerscentrumkdg/
(Official Facebook account KdG Entrepreneurial Center (in Dutch))
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KdgBe
(Official YouTube account KdG )

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Summary

‘What difference do YOU want to make?’ is the principal slogan of Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts (KdG). We offer educational programmes in Management & IT, Science & Technology, Applied Social Studies, Teacher Education, Health Care and Art & Design. In a co-creative atmosphere with students, alumni, teachers and external professionals, KdG provides interdisciplinary learning environments in which entrepreneurship is embedded in the DNA of all activities. Our students are thrown into practice, instead of working with fictitious cases: they implement real (business) ideas. As a school we are proud to harbour the most student-entrepreneurs and students in entrepreneurial study programmes in Flanders.

In 2014, KdG established its own inhouse ‘Entrepreneurial Center’: students with ambition to become an entrepreneur get guidance and coaching to develop their business ideas into concrete concepts. A team of experienced coaches and external experts sit down with the students twice a week to make sure they take the right steps to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.

KdG wants all students to co-create the future by playing an active role in sustainable development. They learn to tackle complex challenges and wicked problems about sustainability together with our community of companies and other stakeholders, and to have a critical view on our society. KdG wants to be positioned in the core of entrepreneurial and business life in Antwerp. For this we have embarked on an ambitious mission to build a new hybrid campus with a modern business incubator in the heart of Antwerp.

Key People


Veerle Hendrickx
General Director
Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Vicky Van Bouwel
Dean
Faculty of Management & IT,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Tom Fleerackers
Dean
Faculty of Science & Technology,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Annemie Soetewey
Coordinator
Entrepreneurial Center,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Kamal Kharmach
Startup Coach
Entrepreneurial Center,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Jeroen Peeters
Startup Coach
Entrepreneurial Center,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Evert Bulcke
Startup Coach
Entrepreneurial Center,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Griet van der Velden
Startup Coach
Entrepreneurial Center,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts



Sven Jacobs
International Coordinator
Faculty of Management & IT,  Karel de Grote University of Applied Sciences and Arts


Acknowledgements

Agentschap Ondernemen en Innoveren VLAIO Flanders (www.vlaio.be) and VLAJO (www.vlajo.org): structural partners of the KdG Entrepreneurial Center

Team Take-off Antwerp (City of Antwerp) (www.takeoffantwerp.be): support ecosystem for entrepreneurial students in Antwerp

Xerius, BNP PB, Rombit, Cronos, Het Ondernemershuis, Crowe, Van Dessel, Enactus, SAAMO: structural partners of the KdG Entrepreneurial Center

Student-entrepreneur and alumnus Aïlan Iriks: this KdG student Chemistry dreamed about an organisation that would give free sport workshops for children in need. He contacted the Entrepreneurial Center in 2016 and told us about his social concept. Our coaches supported the idea and helped him realise his dream. Our team of experts surrounded him and gave the opportunity to combine his statute of student-entrepreneur with his studies. He started with volunteers in the sports facilities of KdG during school holidays. It was very succesful. “Sportpret” was born as a beautiful social concept to provide poor families with sport education for their children; for free. Aïlan got support from the Flemish Government and continued his dream in 5 Belgian cities.

Student-entrepreneur and alumnus Jasper Dockx: this KdG student studied Cross Media Management and was a student-entrepreneur for years. He joined the Entrepreneurial Center to develop his dream of a marketing agency. In a course for last year students of Law, they helped him out on the legal contracts and experts advised him on the financial plan. He started his agency while being a student and even did his internship in his own company. Jasper runs a marketing firm now of more than 5 collaborators. In the meanwhile he came back to KdG as a lecturer and partner of the Entrepreneurial Center.

These and many other student-entrepreneurs became a KdG ambassador and a provider of services to several KdG departments. We thank them for their enthusiasm, support and ambition.

Images

Students working on the Startup@Campus competition cases

Lunch meeting with company leaders to get advice and exchange thoughts about business ideas and concepts (on the wall pictures of our student-entrepreneurs)

Students at work at the Fablab to create innovative products and services of the future

'Kamp Zuid': students organise childcare for the neighbourhood and KdG staff members during the school holidays

The midwife department stimulates an entrepreneurial mindset with their students by creating realistic working environments and co-work spaces

Student-entrepreneurs in a modern space for co-creation and ideation of new concepts

Pop-up event for social exchange between students, entrepreneurs and companies

The teacher education departments where students learn to be creative and incorporate entrepreneurial skills in their schoolwork

Pop-up concept store where our student-entrepreneurs present and sell their products

The coaching team of the Entrepreneurial Center: enthusiastic, supportive and creative as always!

IMPACT STORY

Impacting lifes

KdG wants to be closely connected to our surrounding societal challenges. One of them is daily childcare, which is a big problem in Belgium: many young parents struggle to find proper childcare for their babies. The pressure on child nurseries is very high: one worker has to supervise 9 children at the same time, at a minimum wage. Because of this huge challenge, many nurseries find it hard to continue their activities and to attract motivated people to work.

Under the motto ‘It Takes a Village to Raise a Child’ the ‘Pedagogy for the Young Child’ department stimulates the entrepreneurial sense of their students by letting them run a childcare for young children (from vulnerable societal families in the neighbourhood and KdG staff members) in the holiday periods. In this co-creation ‘Learning Lab’ called ‘Kamp Zuid’, students need to organize the whole daily care system by themselves, while being coached by lecturers. The children go on a journey of discovery every day: they explore the student campus and the neighbourhood, take part in social activities or go out for free play. The student system gives the children a lot of autonomy, freedom of movement and security. By running their own small organization and also leading a team job students and volunteers, our students gain entrepreneurial competences in these real-life based situations.

The initiative started in 2016 by the support of the Entrepreneurial Center and still exists as an example of education of entrepreneurial engagement, in a specific social context.

LEARNINGS

Lessons learned

KdG has built a solid structure around entrepreneurship & engagement in the core of the organisation. We started off with small bits in our curriculum and a handful of enthusiastic lecturers. We had to build goodwill and capacity in our school. Believe in your cause and try to get a foot in every layer of the university.

As a real startup, finding funds to finance our activities has been a challenge. After a lot of networking, we have today several external partners and sponsors that structurally support us. Our entrepreneurial structure forms a Triple Helix from which we attract students, local enterprises and governments. Set up a central hub from which all entrepreneurial activities are being coordinated, including interdisciplinary collaboration between all departments. We established an entrepreneurial coordinator at every campus to screen initiatives within the courses. Make visible what happens about entrepreneurship. Organize a ‘Startup@Campus’ competition as we do, to make entrepreneurship fun and engaging.

We try to inspire students in their entrepreneurial mindset. Entrepreneurship should be accessible for everyone. Give student-entrepreneurs a voice and a platform to show their ideas and organize networking possibilities with companies. Our wall of fame with pictures of student-entrepreneurs shows that youngsters can make their dream a reality while studying. Leading by example is a motto of ours, but in the end it is all about the students: we can proudly say that our alumni come back to partner up with us and that is truly more than we could ever dream of.

FUTURE PLANS

What's coming?

Entrepreneurship has been in our DNA since more than a decade. We are not satisfied with going in the same direction. Our renewed priorities include sustainability, personal leadership, internationalization & digitization. We want our students and lecturers to engage with social inclusion and diversity, ecological boundaries and innovative business models. Projects like FORESIGHT want to make our students think critically about the future and incorporate futureproof skills in all our courses. More and more departments start to work in interdisciplinary and challenge driven ways, like in our new ‘Corporate Social Responsibility business game’. Each year we organize a week on ‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship’ with local and international partners. During pop-up concept stores, students present and sell their sustainable products to the public.

We are developing an interactive programme for companies to transform their activities towards more sustainability. Within a ‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship’ community they co-learn with peers, students and experts about topics like SDGs, change and stakeholder management, circularity, etc. Our lecturers coach the company leaders and co-build sustainable strategies and actions. We will soon organize a postgraduate ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Care and Wellbeing’, a new project on ‘Female Entrepreneurship’ and extend our ‘Entrepreneurship for Digital Nomads’ programme.

We are building a brand new modern campus that will include a state-of-the-art ‘Business Lab’ that will bring together students, alumni, experts, spinoffs and enterprises to integrate authentic learning even deeper in our curriculum. Learning, living and (co-)working will be part of a bigger KdG ecosystem, embedded in an economically thriving city.

KEY STATISTICS

1.105

Total number of successful student-entrepreneurs since the start of our Entrepreneurial Center in 2014

50%

Yearly % of student-entrepreneurs that evolve from idea to real startup

1,3%

% of student-entrepreneurs within current student population

84%

% study rentability: successfully gained credits relative to registered credits (vs. 72% for regular students)

10

Number of structural, external partnerships and sponsors (our experts in the field)

30+

Number of networking events with company leaders and alumni, lunch gatherings and business speeddatss about entrepreneurship

40%

% of female student-entrepreneurs. Our ambition is to upgrade this % to even higher levels

€202.000

Total costs in the Entrepreneurial Center, which is completely self-sufficient

175

Total number of supported student-entrepreneurs each academic year

500

Total number of individual coaching sessions each academic year

5%

% of alumni students that have started their own enterprise during their studies

3.000+

Number of students that study in an entrepreneurial oriented study programme at KdG each academic year

Triple E Awards

The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts toward the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission. Implemented regionally, the Triple E Awards aim to foster change in universities and to emphasize their role in their communities and ecosystems.

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