Campuses Urged to Integrate AI into Entrepreneurship Education
The Indonesian Entrepreneurship Study Programme Association (APSKI) is encouraging universities to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into entrepreneurship education. The move is deemed necessary to ensure graduates are not only able to build businesses but are also more adaptive to technological changes and the needs of the business world.
APSKI Chairman Sonny Rustiadi stated that entrepreneurship education can no longer be limited to teaching how to start a business. He said campuses must equip students with the ability to identify problems, explore regional potential, and develop solutions with economic value.
“Students must be guided to find specific problems in their regions, develop relevant solutions, test them in the market, and bring innovation from campus to become ventures that provide tangible benefits,” Sonny said in a statement on Sunday (26/7/2026).
Sonny explained that entrepreneurship learning needs to be directed towards a project-based approach, field experience, applied research, and solving real-world problems. He added that this approach must also be supported by inter-campus collaboration, strengthening business incubators, and access to technology, financing, and markets.
This commitment was one of the agendas of APSKI’s Third National Working Meeting held in Bali from 22 to 24 July 2026. The event was attended by leaders and managers of entrepreneurship study programmes from 49 universities across Indonesia, practitioners, as well as national and international partners.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Badri Munir Sukoco, said universities have a strategic role in producing entrepreneurs and new start-up companies. He stated that campuses need to build an ecosystem that supports the creation of job creators through research, laboratories, business incubators, mentors, the business world, financing institutions, the government, and alumni networks.
Deputy for Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of SMEs, M. Riza Damanik, said entrepreneurship education must be continuously adapted to technological developments, business needs, regional potential, and the national development agenda.
“We do not expect all graduates to become entrepreneurs. However, every graduate needs to have an entrepreneurial mindset: sensitive to problems, creative in finding solutions, courageous in making measured decisions, able to collaborate, and resilient in facing change,” Riza said.
According to Riza, this approach is in line with Presidential Regulation Number 38 of 2026 concerning National Entrepreneurship Development, which serves as a guideline for building the national entrepreneurship ecosystem.
In addition to the national working meeting, APSKI held an International Conference on Entrepreneurship featuring academics from Indonesia, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia, and the Netherlands. The organisation also launched two scientific journals, namely the Journal APSKI Entrepreneurship and the Journal APSKI PKM, inaugurated the APSKI Bali-Nusa Tenggara board, and facilitated the signing of memoranda of understanding and letters of intent between APSKI member universities and several foreign universities.