Enhancing Entrepreneurship Education at KAMK to Foster International Student Entrepreneurship in Kainuu
Alam, Mahabub; Kar, Pinas (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121737585
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121737585
Tiivistelmä
This thesis examines how Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (KAMK) can improve its entrepreneurship education (EE) and institutional support to assist international students in starting businesses in Finland’s Kainuu region, a rural area which is experiencing demographic decline with low business creation rates. EE is widely regarded as an important catalyst for innovation, employment, and economic growth, but international students in Kainuu face specific challenges around language barriers, cultural differences, barriers to accessing finance, limited personal networks, and misunderstandings of Finnish legal regimes.
The research adopts a constructionist stance, and mixed methods design through quantitative surveys of current international students and qualitative semi-structured interviews of current international students and alumni (Alumni). Kolb’s ELT and Man et al.’s ECT frameworks are distilled to assess the degree to which KAMK’s EE fostered practical experience, opportunity recognition, strategic planning, and other entrepreneurial competencies.
The findings indicate that while KAMK offers valuable support, there are gaps in terms of mentorship opportunities, multilingual legal and financial advice, networking opportunities to develop structured networks, and inclusion of experiential learning in the EE curriculum. Respondents also highlighted the need for culturally relevant pedagogies, content around sustainability and social responsibility, and stronger engagement with local industry and politicians.
This thesis recommends: (i) redesigning the EE curriculum to incorporate more experiential, interdisciplinary, and practice-based learning, (ii) introducing mentorship networks to involve alumni and local entrepreneurs, (iii) targeted multilingual legal and funding guidance, and (iv) strengthening collaboration at an institutional level with regional stakeholders.
This directly supports the Future Entrepreneurs in Kainuu project's goal to nurture inclusive innovation-driven entrepreneurship and socio-economic development. By implementing these recommendations, KAMK will enable international students to have more successful entrepreneurship activities and contribute to the revitalization and sustainable long-term viability of Kainuu.
The research adopts a constructionist stance, and mixed methods design through quantitative surveys of current international students and qualitative semi-structured interviews of current international students and alumni (Alumni). Kolb’s ELT and Man et al.’s ECT frameworks are distilled to assess the degree to which KAMK’s EE fostered practical experience, opportunity recognition, strategic planning, and other entrepreneurial competencies.
The findings indicate that while KAMK offers valuable support, there are gaps in terms of mentorship opportunities, multilingual legal and financial advice, networking opportunities to develop structured networks, and inclusion of experiential learning in the EE curriculum. Respondents also highlighted the need for culturally relevant pedagogies, content around sustainability and social responsibility, and stronger engagement with local industry and politicians.
This thesis recommends: (i) redesigning the EE curriculum to incorporate more experiential, interdisciplinary, and practice-based learning, (ii) introducing mentorship networks to involve alumni and local entrepreneurs, (iii) targeted multilingual legal and funding guidance, and (iv) strengthening collaboration at an institutional level with regional stakeholders.
This directly supports the Future Entrepreneurs in Kainuu project's goal to nurture inclusive innovation-driven entrepreneurship and socio-economic development. By implementing these recommendations, KAMK will enable international students to have more successful entrepreneurship activities and contribute to the revitalization and sustainable long-term viability of Kainuu.