Faculties

I. Establishment

Following the strategy of turning Shenzhen into a "City of Entrepreneurship", Shenzhen Polytechnic University (SZPU) established the Creativity and Entrepreneurship Park of Students in June 2009 and the School of Entrepreneurship in September 2012. Upholding theOpinions on Several Policies and Measures to Further Boost Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation(Guo Fa [2015] No. 32) and theOpinions of Guangdong Provincial People's Government on Further Boosting Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation(Yue Fu [2016] No. 20), SZPU established the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIE) in July 2016, with the aim to further promote innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the college. The School is responsible for the coordination and organization of innovation and entrepreneurship education throughout SZPU and is composed of the Teaching and Research Office of Entrepreneurship Education, the Office of Comprehensive Management, the Maker Center (Fabrication Laboratory), and the Creativity and Entrepreneurship Park of Students.

II.Faculty and Staff

SIEhas 20 faculty members, among whom 10 are full-time teachers, 6 are PHDs, 4 have senior titles, 1 is a high-level talent, and 9 are administrative and supporting staff (including 2 temporary staff). The School has put together a team of innovation and entrepreneurship tutors composed of experts and scholars from inside and outside the college, famous and successful entrepreneurs, outstanding alumni, and professional teachers and trainers, including over 90 entrepreneurship tutors who are not SZPU staff.

III.Education System

The School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship takes the lead in implementing the SZPU-wide entrepreneurship education reform and has established a progressive entrepreneurship education system ranging from enlightenment education, preparatory education, specialized education to practical training, a progressive entrepreneurship curriculum system ranging from compulsory general education courses, elective courses, specialized entrepreneurship courses to practical training, and a progressive entrepreneurship training system ranging from club development, competition selection, project training to practical entrepreneurship training. Such systems provide students with professional guidance and services covering all elements and processes related to starting a new business.

(i) Enlightenment education

All freshmen students are offered a compulsory general education course - Innovative Thinking - which is worth 2 credits. The leading teachers of each secondary faculties and schools will be selected as the lectures. The course will incorporate elements of the corresponding major when taught to SZPU students with different majors.

(ii) Preparatory Education

SZPU offers project-based innovative and entrepreneurial courses (elective courses) for students interested in starting their own businesses. So far, 277 project-based courses on innovation and 130 project-based courses on creativity have been developed.

(iii) Specialized Education

For students who wish to acquire extensive knowledge and skills in their entrepreneurship-related major, we offer 12 courses (specialized courses on entrepreneurship) in two specialties (namely Entrepreneurship Practice, and Innovation and Creativity), including Start-up Team Formation and Management, Entrepreneurial Management, and Entrepreneurial Awareness and Business Opportunity Identification. As of now, 1,258 students have been trained in 11 classes; 5 textbooks on innovation and entrepreneurship have been published.

(iv) Practical Training

For students who have completed business registration, SIE offers free incubation and practical guidance services (practical training) for up to 2 years, including 9 major services, namely business registration, legal consultation, financial and taxation representation, subsidy declaration, loan application, entrepreneurship training, project counseling, market development, and financing matching. The Creativity and Entrepreneurship Park of Students covers an area of 1,800 square meters, which can simultaneously accommodate 54 entrepreneurial teams and provide 2-year free incubation services for start-up projects. Since the opening of the Park in 2010, a total of 401 student start-up projects have been incubated in 18 batches. By 2021, 19 off-campus bases for innovation and entrepreneurship practices have been established for students' practical training.

IV.Infrastructure

Maker Center is a platform that integrates practical training, innovative research and development, and business incubation. The Maker Center at the Liuxiandong Campus is focused on cultural and creative services, providing teachers and students with solutions for product creativity, product appearance, product packaging, and interface design, while establishing an IP repository that can be constantly upgraded, iterated and operated, and therefore forms a shared brand of "SZPU Culture and Creativity". The Maker Center at the Xili Lake Campus serves as a platform that integrates four prototyping technologies, namely electronic information, intelligent manufacturing, big data, and smart life, providing innovative R&D and incubation services for all students. In January 2019, SZPU's Fabrication Laboratory became a certified member of MIT’s Fab Lab network, the first MIT-certified Fab Lab at a Chinese higher TVET institution. In addition, SIE is equipped with an array of advanced facilities such as industrial robots, industrial primary 3D printers, 3D rapid prototyping machines, industrial 3D scanners, and industrial vinyl cutting machines.

V.Achievements

The SZPU model of innovation and entrepreneurship education has taken shape, with the relevant indexes ranking at the forefront of higher education institutions in China. SZPU has won more than ten honors in innovation and entrepreneurship education, including two international, six national, five provincial, and seven municipal honors. The details are as follows:

In 2015, SZPU was designated as one of the first-batch National HEI Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Bases and the first-batch Model Universities and Colleges for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education in Guangdong Province.

In 2016, SZPU was designated as one of the first-batch National Model HEIs with Typical Experience in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Chen Mingxing, an SZPU entrepreneur, got encouragement from Premier Li Keqiang with an autograph, for his Deaf Life project.

In 2017, SZPU was designated as the National Exemplar HEI for Deepening Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform, the Exemplar Base for Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Guangdong Province, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base in Shenzhen (one of the first-batch Top Ten Demonstration Bases of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Shenzhen), and Shenzhen Business Incubation Base.

In 2018, the national teaching resource database for innovation and entrepreneurship education in vocational education set up under the leadership of SIE was registered with the Ministry of Education; SIE's innovation and entrepreneurship education reform achievements won the first prize of the National Educational Achievement Award; SZPU was designated as the exemplar base for business incubation in Guangdong Province and the exemplar HEI for innovation and entrepreneurship education in Guangdong Province.

In 2019, SZPU's Fabrication Laboratory was officially certified by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the first MIT-certified Fab Lab in a Chinese higher education institution. In the same year, the UNESCO-UNEVOC made an on-site assessment at SZPU and considered SZPU's innovation and entrepreneurship level to be among the leading ones in the Asia-Pacific region, and included SZPU's education model into the center's database for successful cases and promoted it on its website as " SZPU's Case" and "China's Solution". SZPU was designated as the Model Start-up Incubator in Shenzhen.

In 2020, UNESCO-UNEVOC introduced SZPU's vocational education model for innovation and entrepreneurship in its publication,Innovating TVET Framework, as an exemplar model to global readers. The national teaching resource database for innovation and entrepreneurship education successfully gained approval from the Ministry of Education.

In 2021, SIE's Innovative Thinking course was selected as the National Golden Course on Employment and Entrepreneurship inHEIs, the only course selected that is run by a higher TVET institution in China.

In addition, SZPU has won 6 national gold medals, 6 silver medals and 3 bronze medals, 20 provincial gold medals, 9 silver medals, and 18 bronze medals in the previous China International College Students’ ‘Internet +’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competitions, ranking first among TVET institutions in China in terms of the number of gold awards won in the national competition.