Over two weeks at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Dr Augusto Rocha, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Business School, co-led the entrepreneurship theme in the INCiTE Summer School. This programme allows students to meet peers from around the world and work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams, learning about cultural competence, design and systems thinking, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. The INCiTE Summer School was developed by a group of world-leading universities, including the University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam, Nanyang Technological University, and the University of Sydney.
"This programme was an amazing opportunity for our students to work alongside diverse teams and develop an entrepreneurial idea based on a global challenge", said Dr Rocha. "During two weeks, these teams identified a problem, ideated a potential solution, learnt how to communicate their idea, and developed a prototype showcasing their business proposal. We taught them key entrepreneurship concepts and tools to help solve problems many societies face. These were a few of the highly relevant skills exposed to students to improve their career prospects."
Alongside learning entrepreneurial skills, this programme allowed students to experience working with intercultural teams, using newly acquired deep democracy techniques. Isabell Majewsky Anderson, Head of Service, Study and Work Away at the University of Edinburgh, reflected: "As we pause for a moment, as we consider the world around us, the events that are taking place across our planet, it brings into sharp focus the importance of intercultural understanding. Intercultural understanding stimulates our interest in the lives of others. It cultivates values and dispositions such as curiosity, care, empathy, reciprocity, respect and responsibility, and critical awareness. Most of all, it supports new and positive intercultural behaviours."
INCiTE was an incredibly fun opportunity to experience a different part of the world and immerse in diverse cultures.Wesley McLoughlin, 4th year Medicine, University of Edinburgh
Majewsky Anderson added: "When our students consider their future career options, whether it is to pursue more academic learning, to seek employment or start their own business, they will see why intercultural skills are important to companies for several reasons. They not only give employees a better understanding of their workplace and co-workers, but they also help them adapt to new work environments and prevent culture shock, while enhancing their cultural awareness, knowledge, and practical skills."
Wesley McLoughlin, a final-year Medical student at the University of Edinburgh shared his thoughts: "INCiTE was an incredibly fun opportunity to experience a different part of the world and immerse in diverse cultures. I made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed my time on the programme. But it wasn't just fun—the engaging teaching sessions covered a variety of transferable skills valuable to almost any career. These ranged from entrepreneurship and design thinking to intercultural intelligence. I was thankful to come away from the beautiful NTU campus with a new international network of friends, wider viewpoints, an expanded mind-set and a bunch of invaluable new skills and capabilities."
This Summer School was an excellent opportunity for the Business School to engage in an international programme and promote best practices in entrepreneurship education. The academic and professional services team from Edinburgh is proud of the creativity and ambition shown by our students, demonstrating how well they developed leadership, creative thinking and problem-solving skills in this very intensive academic, social, and cultural immersion programme.