Entrepreneurial Research University : The Journey of UTM

UTM aspires to become an innovation-led Entrepreneurial Research University and has undergone a comprehensive institutional transformation that promotes mindset change towards more impactful functional operations, service offerings, strategic engagements and brand positioning.  This is because to remain relevant and competitive in an increasingly challenging global environment, UTM has to redefine its role beyond conventional paradigms by exploring different operational models to strategically plan, govern, and empower the university community to think beyond borders to stimulate value-driven, innovative and entrepreneurial approaches guided by the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ (BOS) approach.  The concept of Entrepreneurial Research University that UTM advocates is also based on the concept of the ‘New Academia’, which generates new philosophy from sub-specialization to multidisciplinary knowledge integration; creating new alliances from academic fraternity to society at large, particularly among industry partners and entrepreneurs; new learning experience for students from mere chalk-and-talk to experiential learning and global outreach; and new outcomes from academic certificates and expertise to business models and spin-off companies.  The entrepreneurial concept also stresses a break from routine patterns to a more action-oriented, proactive, and forward-looking orientation by pursuing existing opportunities in meaningful and impactful ways.  The premise taken is that higher education should not just be confined to knowledge discovery and human capital development but should be more effectively integrated into socio-economic development towards value creation and wealth generation.  Entrepreneurial thinking thus entails outcome-based management through cost advantage and high impact strategy approach in managing resources and generating funds for financing of academic development projects.  The aim is to create an organisational culture that is geared towards impactful performance supported by diverse knowledge integration, intense innovative and creative culture with strong entrepreneurial mindset aimed towards capacity building in advancing the university to greater heights.