How Students Learn to Think Like Entrepreneurs

Simona Coppola is majoring in law and has already gained some experience working for herself alongside her studies. She now wants to build on this experience in a more systematic way. Suruchi Thakur is studying informatics and is already working on launching her own startup. Nina Maria Kaelble is majoring in strategic communication and management. She hopes that a hands-on, project-based minor will improve her prospects on the job market.

The three students come from three different faculties and have very different backgrounds and experiences. What they have in common is a desire to learn how to turn their expertise into real-world impact – which is why they chose the new Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor.

With the three-semester minor, UZH is launching its first university-wide Master’s program that systematically develops entrepreneurial skills. Offered through the School for Transdisciplinary Studies and developed by the UZH Innovation Hub, the 30-ECTS program can be combined with a major. The program is aimed at students who are open-minded, proactive and willing to experiment, and who want to work on real-world problems in interdisciplinary teams. No previous entrepreneurial experience is required. Instead, the program places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and collaboration.

Suruchi Thakur expects to benefit greatly from broadening her horizons. The technical development of the app she wants to bring to market is already well advanced. “But a good technical solution alone is not enough. To bring the product to market, I need to understand how prospective users think.” 

Simona Coppola hopes the interdisciplinary collaboration will provide inspiration and spark new ideas: “I chose this minor to explore different perspectives and gain insights from various fields.,” she says. Nina Maria Kaelble also hopes to grow on a personal level. “I’m looking forward to trying out new things with other students, having the freedom to make mistakes and learning from them,” she says.

The new minor has attracted considerable interest, with more than 50 students across 17 different majors applying. Their fields range from computational linguistics to geography and from business administration to art history. Applications were also received from students at other universities. To ensure close supervision and ample opportunity for exchange, the number of participants is limited to around 30 highly motivated students. The program could, however, be expanded in the coming years. 

UZH has already successfully tested this university-wide, interdisciplinary approach to fostering innovation among students on a smaller scale. Since 2019, UZH’s Innovation Office has offered entrepreneurship bootcamps, attended by more than 150 students to date.

These bootcamps demonstrated the enormous potential that can emerge when students from different disciplines come together to develop ideas. They also showed that a single course is not enough to build lasting skills. This is why the UZH Innovation Hub joined forces with the School for Transdisciplinary Studies to develop the three-semester minor, with support from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics and the UZH Foundation. 

Elisabeth Stark, Vice President Research, initiated the program following earlier discussions with representatives of Zurich’s business community. “Entrepreneurial skills and innovative thinking are essential in a society that is changing at a rapid pace,” she says. “For UZH, it is therefore a strategic priority to embed the development of these skills in academic education from an early stage. As a comprehensive university, we have a unique opportunity to teach innovation and entrepreneurship across disciplinary boundaries and bring together different perspectives.” 

The minor helps students to understand complex problems that do not yet have clear-cut answers in their broader context. Working in interdisciplinary teams in a controlled environment, they develop and implement their own ideas, assessing their benefits, feasibility and possible consequences. Along the way, they learn how to make decisions in complex situations, allocate resources, identify potential partners and learn from setbacks. 

The skills they acquire are not only relevant for aspiring entrepreneurs but are needed wherever people have to tackle new challenges, reconcile different interests and act amid uncertainty. The minor is therefore aimed not only at future founders but also prepares students for careers in established companies, research, public institutions and NGOs.

An idea only proves its worth when it is tested under real-world conditions, which is why external partners such as the law firm Wenger Vieli, insurer Swiss Re, Google and Zürcher Kantonalbank play an important role in the minor. Students learn how companies anticipate future developments and turn them into innovations, gain insights into legal negotiations and discuss financing options for start-ups. Together with an artist and a science fiction writer, they develop possible future scenarios and challenge familiar assumptions. In addition, the accompanying Connect event series introduces students to Zurich’s innovation and start-up ecosystem.

Nina Maria Kaelble has high hopes for these connections: “One of my main goals during my studies is to learn how to build and use networks,” she says. 

Suruchi Thakur, who already has clear plans for her startup, is confident: “The minor is connecting me with the right people at this stage in my journey.” Over the next three semesters, she wants to determine whether there is a market for her product idea – and find investors to support it. Simona Coppola, who does not yet have any specific entrepreneurial plans, frames her goal more broadly: “Above all, I want to build enough self-confidence and acquire the necessary skills to make good decisions and say ‘yes’ at the right moment.”

Only time will tell where the three students’ paths will take them. Their journey is only just beginning.