Northeastern University was awarded this year's Entrepreneurial University Award at the Deshpande Symposium for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education Tuesday night. The award is presented annually to an institution that “demonstrates overall excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The symposium is co-founded by the Deshpande Foundation, a non-governmental organization focused on accelerating the creation of social enterprises, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

The symposium brings together policy planners, academics, and practitioners from around the globe to discuss best practices for integrating entrepreneurship through university and college communities.

“Northeastern's entrepreneurial ecosystem is an organic, bottom-up movement, started by, and for, students,” said Raj Echambadi, the Dunton Family Dean of the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. “We pride ourselves in creating and training ‘Chief Entrepreneurial Officers' who think differently and are capable of solving the grand challenges of business and society in a global economy. This award is a testament to the strength of experiential learning through the integration of rigorous classroom education and real-world entrepreneurial engagement.”

This is the second time in four years that Northeastern has received an award at the symposium, winning the Excellence in Student Engagement in Entrepreneurship award in 2015.

Northeastern's Center for Entrepreneurship Education, housed within D'Amore-McKim, oversees the majority of the university's entrepreneurship education programs and initiatives.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are central themes of the university's academic plan, Northeastern 2025. Experiential learning, especially the co-op program, is the core of the university's mission to train students and alumni to be entrepreneurs.

About 2,000 students take at least one Northeastern's 35 entrepreneurship courses each year. 

Full story.