Entrepreneurship at Leuphana University

The promotion of entrepreneurial thinking and action is a particular concern of Leuphana University of Lüneburg. It has been one of the leading universities for entrepreneurship for many years - in research, teaching and practice.
Its activities in the field of action-orientated start-up support have been awarded several prizes.

The university has successfully supported start-up projects for many years. Many successful start-ups and established companies have their roots here.
The field of entrepreneurship research at Leuphana is exceptionally broad and is represented with various focal points (social, sustainable, cultural and digital entrepreneurship through to entrepreneurship in schools), conceptual approaches and methodological approaches.

Entrepreneurship at Leuphana means more than just founding a company with a capitalistic profit motive: In terms of an action-orientation, we understand entrepreneurial thinking as a method for tackling and solving problems. This includes, in particular, taking initiative in the face of major social challenges, recognising opportunities and acting independently for the common good.

Leuphana University Lüneburg is one of the most successful start-up universities in Germany. This is according to the ‘Start-up Radar 2022’ of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. A total of 196 universities took part in the survey.
The start-up radar certifies that Leuphana performs particularly well in the areas of start-up qualification and start-up support. Overall, the result emphasises that topics such as start-ups and entrepreneurship are firmly anchored in the university's teaching, research and transfer. Targeted start-up and innovation consulting services combined with comprehensive qualification programmes and training courses promote interest and activity in start-ups at Leuphana.

As a signatory to the ‘Entrepreneurial Skills Charta’, Leuphana is committed to its understanding of entrepreneurship education and expresses its desire to integrate the associated skills structurally and curricularly and to call on other stakeholders to do the same in their sphere of influence.
In the ‘Entrepreneurial Skills’ funding network of the Stifterverband, the Dieter Schwarz Foundation and Campus Founders in cooperation with Allianz SE, university representatives worked together over several months to develop solutions and approaches on how entrepreneurial skills can be structurally integrated into universities as cross-cutting or future skills.
Based on the challenges identified by the more than 50 participants, eleven theses on the development of successful, sustainable entrepreneurship education were developed and supplemented in a co-creative process by a broad circle of other experts. They serve as a guide to support teachers and university management in designing their entrepreneurship education formats.

Summary

1. Entrepreneurship education encompasses a variety of future-relevant competences
2. Entrepreneurship education needs impact-orientated and data-based scientific support
3. Entrepreneurship education is practice-orientated, evidence-based and uses holistic methods
4. Entrepreneurship education is orientated towards the needs of the target group
5. Entrepreneurship education must be further developed in a subject-specific manner
6. Entrepreneurship education must be comprehensively anchored in the organisational structure
7. Entrepreneurship education must be developed as an interface topic to transfer, research, start-up services and business
8. Entrepreneurship education needs a cultural change at universities
9. Entrepreneurship education must be structurally anchored in the curriculum
10. Entrepreneurship education is interdisciplinary and co-operative
11. Entrepreneurship education means education for social responsibility, sustainability and future viability

Do you have an innovative and knowledge-intensive business idea? The Leuphana Start-up Service supports students, researchers and alumni in realising their business ideas - from the initial idea to successfully founding a company.
Contact us for a non-binding initial consultation. Let's drive innovation in our region together.

In the Entrepreneurship Hub, we network the diverse activities of Leuphana University on the topic of entrepreneurship, develop them further and make them visible. The Hub is the central point of contact and provides cross-faculty impetus for research and teaching, advisory services and start-up projects.
The mission of the Entrepreneurship Hub is to bring Leuphana's action-orientation to life. In line with our humanistic, sustainable and action-orientated mission statement, we understand the term entrepreneurship in a comprehensive sense. Whether as a founder, as an intrapreneur within a company or in another form as part of your own life and career planning - there are many different ways to be ‘entrepreneurial’. They are all united by the conviction that entrepreneurship is not an end in itself.