Using Entrepreneurship to Redesign the College Operating Model

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Jeff Meade, Founding Director of the Every Quinnite is an Entrepreneur program at Paul Quinn College, about how the institution has embedded entrepreneurship into the operating model of the college itself.

Rather than treating entrepreneurship as an elective or a business school track, Paul Quinn uses it as a structural solution to some of higher education’s biggest challenges: workforce readiness, student engagement, institutional costs, and student debt.

As one of only eight federally recognized work colleges in the United States, Paul Quinn requires all resident freshmen and sophomores to work on campus in meaningful operational roles. By junior and senior year, students transition into paid positions with corporate partners such as Southwest Airlines and Goldman Sachs. At the same time, every freshman completes a required entrepreneurship course during summer bridge, and students begin building and pitching real venture ideas that can receive seed funding from the college.

Jeff explains how this model allows the college to lower tuition by redesigning its business structure, how corporate partnerships create a true workforce pipeline rather than traditional internships, and how entrepreneurship is used to teach students to become entrepreneurs of their own lives.

This conversation is especially relevant for institutional leaders looking for practical ways to improve workforce readiness, reduce student debt, strengthen retention, and break down academic silos without adding new programs or increasing costs.

Topics Covered:

• How the federal work college model changes both student engagement and institutional costs

• Why Paul Quinn lowered tuition by changing its operating model rather than increasing discounting

• How campus work transitions into paid corporate roles for juniors and seniors

• The required summer bridge entrepreneurship course for every freshman

• How student ventures are integrated into multiple academic disciplines

• The role of faculty leadership development through supervising student workers

• Why partnerships, both external and internal, are central to the model

• How a seed fund is designed to be self-sustaining through student venture revenue

Real-World Examples Discussed:

• A student learning grant research and development by working directly in the entrepreneurship department

• Students working in enrollment management and representing the college at recruitment events

• Corporate partners sponsoring pitch competitions and hiring students into paid roles

• Students earning income that both offsets tuition and builds professional experience

• Freshmen pitching business ideas based on problems they see in their own communities

Three Key Takeaways for Leadership:

• Partner with other institutions, corporations, and entrepreneurs rather than trying to build everything internally

• Design entrepreneurship and experiential learning models to be self-sustaining, not cost centers

• Make entrepreneurship universal across the student body so it becomes part of the institutional DNA

Dr. McNaughton’s Bonus Takeaway:

• Partnerships must exist internally across departments as well as externally to prevent silos and fully integrate the model

This episode provides a clear example of how entrepreneurship can function as an institutional design strategy, not just a curricular offering.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/entrepreneurship-to-redesign-college-operating-model/ 

 

#HigherEducation #StudentSuccess #WorkforceReadiness #Entrepreneurship