Since 2017, the Hynds Foundation has played a catalytic role in helping Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland grow a distinctive approach to entrepreneurship education through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Through the Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme, the Foundation continues to enable students from across disciplines to develop the confidence, creativity and practical capability needed to innovate within their own fields and contribute to New Zealand’s future prosperity.
In 2025, the programme delivered nine courses reaching 2212 students in partnerships across the university. The programme’s strength continues to lie in its discipline-specific approach, embedding entrepreneurial thinking into authentic learning contexts so that students can apply innovation tools directly to the challenges, opportunities and industries most relevant to them.
A major focus in the past year has been expanding entrepreneurship education into new areas within the Faculty of Arts and Education. Fellow Dr Marissa Kaloga collaborated with academic staff to develop innovative new learning experiences in Global Studies and Music, reflecting the growing importance of social and creative entrepreneurship in New Zealand and globally.
GLOBAL 250: Social Entrepreneurship and Systems Change
In this course, students explore how entrepreneurial approaches can be used to tackle complex societal challenges including climate change, inequality and homelessness. They created ‘zines for change’ to communicate systems-level issues, and developed their own social-venture concepts addressing gaps they identified in existing solutions. The course also introduced students to forensic case studies examining where social enterprises can unintentionally fail to deliver positive impact, encouraging deeper critical thinking around innovation and systems change.
Student Dulmi De Silva says: “I initially chose GLOBAL 250 out of curiosity, as it was a special-topic course, but it quickly became one of the most engaging and valuable classes I’ve taken. Marissa’s teaching style stood out to me, particularly the interactive tutorials and case-based approach she used, which felt very different from the typical lecture format and kept the class consistently interesting … The course gave me practical skills and introduced me to the world of social entrepreneurship in a way no other class has. It added a completely new perspective to my degree and expanded my understanding of how innovative, impact-driven careers can drive social change. And that you can run a business while having a social impact, not a charity or a fully profit-driven business. I genuinely looked forward to the class each week and found the experience overall incredibly beneficial.”
MUSIC 365: Music Industry and Business
This course challenged students to apply entrepreneurial thinking directly to their creative practices. Students experimented with real-world entrepreneurial activities ranging from producing events on zero-budget to developing home-recording studios and collaborating with game designers on soundtracks. Industry-facing podcast interviews with music entrepreneurs helped bring concepts such as ‘opportunity recognition’ and ‘value creation’ to life in ways students found highly relatable and contemporary.
Student feedback across the programme remained exceptionally strong. One student reflected that Dr Kaloga “made us feel happy doing the assignments, like our ideas could grow and nurture our creativity,” while another noted the course “felt like a modern and up-to-date format I hadn’t experienced before”.
Alongside these new curricular partnerships, the Hynds Fellows Programme continued to support large-scale entrepreneurial capability-building across the University.
In 2025, the programme enabled 1981 Stage One Business students in B112: Managing Sustainable Growth to learn core prototyping principles through a hands-on makerspace assignment. Students developed, refined and reflected on innovative packaging prototypes of their own creation, helping build practical design-thinking and experimentation skills at scale.
The programme also supported hackathon activity integrating employability, innovation and entrepreneurship into academic learning experiences, helping students strengthen collaboration, problem-solving and industry engagement skills in fast-paced, multidisciplinary environments.
Since its establishment, the Hynds Entrepreneurial Fellows Programme has now reached nearly 13,000 students across 17 courses and collaborated with every faculty at the university. Importantly, the programme continues to demonstrate that entrepreneurial capability is not confined to business or startup creation alone. Whether in Music, Global Studies, Engineering, Science or Health, students are developing the ability to recognise opportunities, navigate uncertainty and create meaningful impact within their own disciplines and communities.
The Hynds Foundation’s ongoing support has enabled the university to continue pushing the boundaries of what entrepreneurship education can look like in a modern university context. As the programme evolves, it remains an important platform for developing innovative, adaptable graduates ready to contribute to New Zealand’s economic, social and cultural future.