Promoting digital entrepreneurial mindsets in Higher Education

According to UNESCO (2017), in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), quality education (promoting the development of skills and knowledges to find solutions to economic, social, and environmental problems)
is the cornerstone of all the other SDG. The COVID-19 pandemic has evicted and accelerated the need for our educational systems address the digital transformation promoting, among other aspects, the use of digital tools among
students and teachers, creating more attractive and innovative learning and teaching approaches, and find a way of how to work transnationally without traveling to stay in tune with surrounding societal changes. Additionally, building entrepreneurial competence is a key EU policy. It is a feature of the Strategic Framework for Education and Training and an element of many recent policy documents. The Council Recommendation on Key Competences (EC, 2018), states the importance of “promoting entrepreneurial mindsets” and encourages Member States to think about “nurturing entrepreneurship competence, creativity and the sense of initiative especially among young people”. Despite these policy imperatives, the traditional model of university teaching is starting to be perceived as being less relevant for the future.
Young people are questioning whether attending university delivers the benefits they anticipate. Employers doubt whether universities remain the best source of talent and ideas and some politicians doubt the value of increased funding for HE, given its impact on social and economic development. In this sense, Challenge-based learning (CBL), as an innovative learning methodology, based on experiential learning and focused on applying students’ knowledge (acquired during their regular courses at university) to solve real-world challenges, is an excellent approach not just to develop creativity and entrepreneurial competences, but also to answer current societal challenges (e.g. UN SDG) by combining self-direct learning, interdisciplinary and cross-national teamwork, and an intensive use of technology.