Design students are more than ever facing sustainability issues in their education and training, and some of them are bringing particularly relevant and timely issues to the table through their curricular projects. However, these projects often fall into oblivion after graduation and are never given a chance to be concretised. While general entrepreneurial intentions and motivations have been extensively studied, this study aims explicitly to understand and assess design students' social and sustainable entrepreneurial mindsets, intentions, and motivations, particularly those influenced by higher education and the Programme for LASALLE Creative Entrepreneurs (PLACE). Additionally, this study seeks to identify and discuss the educational implications of embedding social and sustainable entrepreneurship within design higher education programmes, offering actionable recommendations for educators and institutions aiming to foster entrepreneurial mindsets aligned with social and environmental responsibility.
We employed a mixed-methods approach, surveying students from various programmes offered in the Faculty of Design and conducting interviews with graduating students who had created their social enterprises. By employing a mixed-methods approach, our study surveys students from various programmes. It conducts interviews with graduating students, utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods to address the diversity of responses and samples better. We examine the case of PLACE (Programme for LASALLE Creative Entrepreneurs), which encourages design students to pursue their entrepreneurial ventures.
As the programme is still in its infancy, the preliminary results already suggest a high level of entrepreneurial consciousness among design students, with projects that are socially and sustainably engaged.
Although far from new, creative university incubators remain scarce and often prioritise new technologies and quick profits over sustainable solutions and socially and ethically responsible community projects, underscoring the need for a focus on design systems, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship.
