Teach students to think like entrepreneurs, say experts at Gulf News Edufair Abu Dhabi

Students today are expected to initiate, adapt, and deliver rather than wait for instructions. During a panel discussion, Learning meets leadership, at Gulf News Edufair Abu Dhabi, educators discussed how academic programmes are being restructured to incorporate entrepreneurial thinking into the core of higher education.

The panel focused on helping students develop ownership, creativity and execution skills, whether they’re building start-ups or driving change within complex systems.

 Higher education institutions are embedding entrepreneurship not just in business programmes, but across disciplines.

 “Over the past decade, there’s been a defined shift towards including courses that talk about design thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship,” said Santosh Gopalkrishnan, Head of Academics at Symbiosis International University, Dubai.

 “These subjects, which were rarely part of the curriculum in the past, are now mandatory across all domains – not just in business but even allied fields.”

The emphasis has moved away from electives to core learning. “Courses like entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, and design thinking are no longer electives. They are embedded in the core curriculum because these are the building blocks students need, whether or not they end up launching their own ventures,” Gopalkrishnan said.

 Symbiosis Dubai uses project-based learning to build real-world problem-solving skills. “Project-based learning is one of the key ways we bring entrepreneurship into the classroom. Students work in groups on real-world social problems,” Gopalkrishnan said.

Student councils are now more than representative bodies. They are the platforms for hands-on learning where students learn to initiate and take action.

 “From admissions support to corporate relations, each council has its own budget and must justify funding requests to the dean. They plan, they execute, and they solve problems and it’s real-world entrepreneurship in action,” Gopalkrishnan explained.

Speakers at Edufair highlighted that entrepreneurship is not only about launching companies. It’s about taking ownership and leading efforts that create value, in any context.

“Entrepreneurship doesn’t always mean starting a business; it’s about creating impact, even in small, meaningful ways,” said Namrata Walia, Co-founder and Head of Admissions, GuideMe Education.

"It could be something like organising a mental health awareness camp. That, too, is entrepreneurship.”

Humera Khan, CEO and Managing Director at Pinnacle Innovation & Education, agreed. “Self-awareness is the first step in the entrepreneurial mindset. You need to be aware of what’s happening in the world, so you can identify the problems around you, at your level, and start thinking about how to solve them.”

Khan added, “Ownership involves living one day at a time — not sulking about the past or overthinking the future. If you think about the past, it brings tears. If you overthink the future, it brings fears. But if you live one day at a time, it brings cheers.”

 Walia also emphasised student agency in career planning. “We work closely with high school students preparing for top-tier universities like the Ivy Leagues. The first thing we ask them is to take ownership of their own career paths. We don’t tell them, ‘You’ve done computer science, so this is your next step.’ Instead, we ask: ‘What do you want to do?’ And then we work backwards from there.”

Even medicine is adapting to the new model of teaching and learning. Dr. Subhranshu Sekhar Kar, Associate Dean - Curriculum Development and Implementation and Professor of Pediatrics, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, said the field has entered a new era.

 “If you go back in history, you will find that there are three distinct phases in medical education,” he said. “Number one is the informative phase. Number two is the reformative phase. Now we are in the transformative phase.”

He described how RAKMHSU’s curriculum has been redesigned to match the times. “We have added information technology as a full three-credit course. We’ve also added medical innovation and entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence.”

These modules are hands-on. “All these courses are applied. About one-third is active lectures, and the rest are practical experiences. In this way, we are preparing our future graduates for the world.”

Dr Kar stressed technological literacy. “In the medical field, this is the need of the hour. Some say if you are trained in AI and you are a doctor, you are better suited for the future. But, If you are not trained in AI, you are going to perish.”

 Courses like Clinical Decision Making (CDM) build critical thinking. “Each student takes a case, they’re given certain points and questions, and it’s their own effort to reach a diagnosis and management plan. That’s problem-solving.”

Educators also acknowledged the pressure that comes with building entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Soofi Anwar, Associate Dean at DeMont Institute of Management and Technology, said students need to learn by doing, but within balanced systems.

“The goal is to develop all the competencies required for a successful start-up or entrepreneurial venture,” he said. “This means going beyond teaching theory. Students need to apply concepts, engage in critical thinking, and explore relevance in real-world scenarios.”

 “In many universities today, assessment is moving away from traditional exams and towards portfolio-based formats like project-based learning,” he said. “When students are given real-life, scenario-based projects and asked to present their solutions, it challenges their understanding and helps identify core entrepreneurial competencies.”

 Gopalkrishnan added, “We celebrate failure. Because the first thing you encounter on the path of innovation and entrepreneurship is actually failure.”

 Cultivating entrepreneurial skills must begin early, said speakers. “Whenever we interact with students, we find that more than 50 to 60 per cent show a clear interest in entrepreneurial ventures,” said Dr Anwar. “But yes, that journey has to start from scratch, and that’s why building a culture of entrepreneurship right from the school curriculum is so important.”

 Khan underlined how early planning shapes future success. “Clarity of goals is critical when it comes to university applications. Start early. If a student is in Grade 8 and dreams of joining a particular university, they need to map the path now.”

 Walia said early ownership translates into authentic applications. “Just being the president of a podcast club isn’t enough anymore. It’s about authentic storytelling — showing who you are, what you stand for, and what you’ve built.”

 As institutions and educators continue to adapt, the message is clear: entrepreneurship education is not just about launching a business. It’s about learning to act, lead, and solve problems from high school to professional life.