17 September 2024 One-of-a-kind entrepreneurship programme will prepare students to embrace AI and automation

Artificial intelligence, technology, automation. Our world is changing, which means our industries need to change with it.

Innovation cannot go backwards, so Lincoln University has created the new Entrepreneurship and Innovation major and minor programmes to help students go forward with their ideas.

Available from the beginning of 2025, the programme takes a modern and unconventional approach to education, designed to teach students how to think outside the box and become pioneers.

Lecturer and programme director Dr Faith Jeremiah said the programme was different to anything else offered in New Zealand.

Students would engage closely with their lecturers and learn how to observe the world around them, enabling them to identify trends and opportunities.

“What way is the world going and where is it trending towards?

“AI and machines are going to do the mundane work for us. How, as humans, can we add value? What can we do differently?”

New technology introduced new ways of working, thinking and being, she said.

“We need to adapt and pivot how we do things.”

Despite what some people believed, being entrepreneurial was a skill that could be trained.

The programme would do this by challenging students to think beyond their preconceived notions and perceptions.

“We don’t want students to just be passive recipients of information. Actually dig deeper and explore.”

One way of doing this was by placing students in completely different social situations. That could be done by spending a day with a disabled person, exposing them to a completely different way of living that had different needs.

By experiencing the struggles of a customer first-hand, the students could apply their entrepreneurial education to find creative solutions and help solve the issues that demographic faced.

“It’s only by really immersing yourself in a situation you can get a clearer picture.”

As a testament to the new way of thinking, the assessments for entrepreneurship courses were untraditional and did not discourage the use of tools like AI.

“We don’t want students just regurgitating information. We like collaborative learning and want our assignments to be interesting.”

The minor programme was designed to complement any career path and the major prepare students to start their own ventures or enter the workforce with an innovative mindset prepared to face the future.

“Entrepreneurship and innovation are intertwined with everything that we do.”

Find out more about the new Bachelor of Commerce (Entrepreneurship and Innovation major)