Transformation in Institutions of Higher Education in South Africa: An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Perspective

Abstract

Transformation in Higher Education can be shown in several ways ranging from transforming strategies on executive management, academic offerings, and services to support staff and impactful deliveries to students. Creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem is seen as one of the instruments of transformation. An entrepreneurial ecosystem needs a community of practice that displays the character of creativity and innovation, risk-taking, an initiator, a strategist, and an active participant in identifying opportunities and making decisions among others in the business. The paper seeks to review transformation in Higher Education through the entrepreneurship ecosystem using a thematic document analysis methodology. It is based on a thematic review of relevant literature and establishes various themes that are essential for the development of an entrepreneurial university. The themes are categorized as: an entrepreneurial University, entrepreneurship in academia, and student entrepreneurship activities. Through the entrepreneurship ecosystem, universities are expected to play a crucial role in building their structures to be economically active; addressing graduate unemployment; providing recovery strategies to reboot businesses in communities, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic; and positioning themselves as entrepreneurial universities. The findings of this study lead to the recommendation that universities should initiate a change process from their traditional orientation to become entrepreneurial universities. It is recommended that government and other stakeholder support should be accelerated for the realization of the envisaged transformation to entrepreneurial ecosystems