MBA in Entrepreneurship

The UTS Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship (MBAe) helps you gain the necessary skills and meet the right people to develop your entrepreneurial project. It is for people who have creative and innovative ideas and want to see them through to fruition, either as a startup entrepreneur or as a change agent in existing organisations.

Jochen: Many people have great ideas, but it's often the next step in the journey when you're trying to realize that idea that's the difficult one. It's backing yourself, taking that risk and establishing that startup. There's no shortage of good ideas, but what we find that people need is 4 things: key knowledge, the entrepreneurial mindset, self confidence and networks.

We believe that we can create the conditions in which the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught and your ideas can grow.

Yuxin: It's quite overwhelming information, but it's really fun, especially learning with a group of really smart people.

David: What makes the MBA special is the fact that it's tailored for students, it's informed by great research and it's applied. Students get to work with their material straight away. That opportunity to actually use the knowledge immediately is a great benefit of this program.

Jochen: The UTS MBA and entrepreneurship is designed as 3 graduate certificates. Each of these certificates is helping you to build the business knowledge, the relationships and the self confidence to achieve your goals.

Melissa: Two things that you should consider before joining this course is what is your passion and what is the purpose? This is really important, because the subjects are designed in a way to enable you to create that purpose and to find a mechanism or a way of designing an organization that will allow you to achieve that purpose.

Luke: I'm a full believer in what the course is trying to do and I can honestly say, so far it's been absolutely amazing.

Jochen: The course content is being covered, UTS also delivers a whole range of other activities and that could include master classes, hackathons or incubators that will help you to build the networks and get in touch with the kind of people that you need to progress your idea.

Jochen: I'm really excited about this program, because it provides the opportunity for students to meet and to work with like minded people. The MBA entrepreneurship is about change. It's about making things happen. It's for those people who want to grow their idea into something that matters to themselves, to their community or to the world at large.

How it works

As a unique one- or two-year intensive MBA designed for entrepreneurs and innovators, the flexible modular structure of the program allows students to study in stages while developing and working on their entrepreneurial or innovation project.

You don't need to put your career or entrepreneurial dreams on hold. The MBAe is designed to be undertaken while you work. It is taught over three sessions (Autumn, Spring and Summer) with classes held mostly at night and on weekends.

Flexibility is the key

While the full MBAe can be completed in one calendar year, you can also:

complete the MBAe over two years by reducing your study load.
start with the Graduate Certificate in Commercialisation, which comprises the first module of the MBAe, to get a taste of what it will be like to undertake the higher degree. This may also be an option for people with professional work experience but no prior university education.
continue on with either of the other two modules as separate Graduate Certificates in Entrepreneurship or Venture Acceleration.
take individual subjects from the MBAe curriculum as electives in your other postgraduate degree.

Course structure

The curriculum is designed as nine integrated subjects that build your capabilities and confidence as you progress through the program. There are no electives and we recommend starting either in Autumn or Spring session. You can explore each subject in the MBAe on our course videos page.

The student experience

Find out more about what our current and past students think about the MBAe program on our MBAe student experience page.

Teaching staff

The MBAe is taught by academics with extensive research and practical experience, and by accomplished entrepreneurs.

Associate Professor Jochen Schweitzer is the Course Director for the MBAe. Before becoming an academic, Jochen worked as a strategy consultant and adviser for corporate and startup clients. He is trained as both an engineer and social scientist and teaches two of the studio subjects in the MBAe: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Practice, and Venture Planning and Pitching.
Tom Bass is the Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) at UTS Business School and brings substantial startup experience, both as a founder and adviser, to the program. Tom has taken part in some of the world's best accelerator programs. He teaches the final capstone subject, Venture Planning and Pitching.
Dr Ele Jansen is a game designer for experiential education, experimenting with connected ways of working and learning. She is trained as an anthropologist and has extensive experience in helping people find and act upon their passion. Ele teaches the subject Founder at Heart.
Rob Deeming teaches Venture Growth and Internationalisation. As a serial entrepreneur, current CEO of a startup and Harvard MBA graduate, Rob has taken many companies from their early beginnings all the way to IPO.
William Page is an entrepreneur, innovator, writer, public speaker, tech lover, entertainment specialist and former corporate lawyer, who co-founded FilmDoo, an international and independent film platform. He teaches Start-up Data, Marketing and Sales.
Professor David Brown has been the owner and founder of various businesses. David is an expert in the design and use of management and accounting systems that address behavioural, decision-making and coordination problems in startups. He teaches Opportunity Commercialisation.
Tarra van Amerongen is Managing Director of ustwo, a leading design strategy consultancy. She teaches students how to apply strategy, design thinking, data analytics and startup methods in the subject Entrepreneurship and Innovation Practice.
Professor Prabhu Sivabalan is an award-winning educator and leads the engagement portfolio at the UTS Business School. Prabhu teaches Start-up Finance and Accounting.
Dr Tim Rayner is a trained philosopher turned author and innovation educator. Tim specialises in entrepreneurial capacity development, cultural alignment, and lean startup best practices. He teaches Leadership, Teams and Scalability in the MBAe.
Professor Dave Michayluk is the Head of Finance Discipline Group at UTS. He has first-hand startup experience as a director and adviser to many startup businesses, as well as a founder going through one of the world's best incubator programs. David teaches Start-up Finance and Accounting.
Brian Dorricott is the successful founder of two businesses and also the lead facilitator for CSIRO's ON Accelerator Lean Innovation & Startup Programs. With his wealth of experience, he teaches Start-up Structures, IP and Negotiation in the MBAe.
Leanne Sobel is a design strategist and researcher at the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre. In her work she applies human-centred design principles to the development of strategy research reports, design briefs and innovation initiatives. Leanne teaches in the subject Entrepreneurship and Innovation Practice

How you are supported

UTS offers a range of support for student entrepreneurs. As part of the MBAe, you have access to a project space − the UTS Venture Lab; the UTS Startups program; a mentor program; and non-award-based masterclasses and events with entrepreneurs and industry partners.

Venture Lab

The MBAe has its own dedicated Venture Lab in which you can collaborate, brainstorm and innovate with other students, teaching staff and industry partners. It's located on Level 2 of our iconic Frank Gehry-designed Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (UTS Business School, Building 8) and is a vibrant space for networking and creating.

UTS Startups

UTS Startups is a program designed to inspire UTS students to become entrepreneurs, and to support startups launched by UTS students. As a UTS student you can apply to become a member if your idea is addressing a large market (something that is meaningful when it succeeds) and which uses technology to address the market quickly.

Mentorship

Throughout your MBAe studies, you have access to an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR), who will support you with mentoring, advice and feedback. The EiR works with students to apply real-world tested applications of Design Thinking and Lean Startup principles on a one-on-one or per team basis to refine their business ideas, strategies and execution.

Masterclasses and events

The UTS Business School Entrepreneurship Series features speakers and topics relevant for people interested in starting and building a business. The series is free and open to everyone. It is organised with the student entrepreneur in mind. Events are scheduled alongside the curriculum of the MBAe.

Venture Day

At the conclusion of the MBAe, students pitch their venture, which has been refined and perfected over the year, to experts, entrepreneurs and potential investors.The winning projects secure significant seed-funding and support. Learn more about the event here and in the video below.

Dr Jochen Schweitzer: This room has filled with people now which is really wonderful to see. So a big welcome to everyone. This is Venture Day. We already went through a first round of 16 pitches and I just quickly want to announce who's going to be our final 10 presenters.

Professor Andrew Parfitt:
We've had a very exciting day and there are a few people who are probably even a little bit more excited now with the later part of the programme. We're delighted that we've celebrating here the first Venture Day, but also the end of the first year of this great program.

Ann Hoban: Today was a great day when we all had an opportunity to present on our individual projects.

Annette McClelland: This was the final day to allow us to show off all the great we've done in five small minutes.

Michael Griffin: Bit of a mixed bag of looking forward to it and being terrified by it.

Petra Andren: You had projects that were more in the social impact space and you had projects that I could see could potentially become profitable businesses. Always good to present what you've done to a panel of people that are from the real world and to get constructive feedback.

Liam Daley: I'm Liam Daley, founder of Dlivee. The customer controls the purchase so the customer should control the delivery.
Today's been absolutely fantastic. It's more than I could have imagined.

Lance Kalish: And I know it's still early, but where do you see yourself specifically?

Peta Portelli: I'd love to take it into the wearable technology space eventually.

Petra Andren: But would you consider that, partnering with somebody who knows manufacturing?

David Langford: How do you intend to address that issue through the integration of the variety of apps?
Ali Linz: If my delivery options are different today than my default ones.

Maria Cadena: When I got there, I was confident of what I had, and when I finished, I couldn't believe the amount of applause I got.

Petra Andren: I think the students really benefited from that and, of course, being a judge I benefited from it as well because I saw some amazing ideas.

David Lillo-Trynes: I was just so happy to get answers and happy to talk about what we were working on. It's pretty nerve-wracking but I feel really good now.

Dr Jochen Schweitzer: I think it was an incredible job that you did in presenting this so smoothly, so all that practising has really paid out I think.

Professor David Brown: People are becoming the custodians of their own destiny and if there's a place in which we really see this, this is in entrepreneurial activity in all it's different forms.

Petra Andren: I thought the presentations were terrific. Look, just another observation, I did my MBA about 11 years ago now and I was the only woman. So great to see that there are a lot of women presenters today. And teams that are men and women, that's going in the right direction. So great. But great job everyone.

John Lee: I'll repeat those words. I think the entrepreneurship and innovation in Australia is in very good hands.

Ali Linz: The pitches were of an outstanding quality in content, but also in presentation. Well done.

David Langford: The results in the marking were very close. The third prize tonight, Lift Me.
The second prize is Tekuma.
And the first prize winner, Dlivee.

Petra Andren: Not only were there a lot of great ideas, but the pattern behind them, and you could tell that a lot of these students will actually follow through and I think we're going to see some amazing businesses as a result. Really entrepreneurship is something that you will only learn by doing, but this course is exactly that. These students have taken an idea and then gone out into the real world and tested it, so they are actually learning by doing as well as learning about those vital tools, finance, intellectual property, pathway to market, all those things, it combines. I think it's a great initiative and I don't know any other school that does it. So good on UTS.

Graduate Certificates

Completion of the Graduate Certificate in Commercialisation (C11251), the Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship (C11252) and the Graduate Certificate in Venture Acceleration (C11253) is equivalent to achieving the entire MBAe degree. Even if you commence the MBAe, it is still possible to exit the program early having completed one or two Graduate Certificates.