How Entrepreneurship in Higher Education Helps to Sustainable Development at the Local Level: The Case of Tecnocampus

It would seem that the combination of the location of university campuses and entrepreneurship studies is not a big issue on sustainable initiatives taken by universities. But choosing the right place as well as powerful entrepreneurship topics in higher education are key elements to success in sustainable development on the local level. This paper presents the case of Tecnocampus, University College affiliated to Pompeu Fabra University, which is located in a Scientific and Innovation Park near Barcelona. Tecnocampus is one of the 25 first good practice case studies throughout Europe chosen in 2016 by the University-Business Cooperation in Europe, an initiative from the European Commission. Inspired by the triple helix model, university, innovative companies and public authorities work together to manage and develop the university studies focus on the sustainability of the campus and local development. Finally, concrete examples of sustainable ideas taken on the campus are explained. Some of them are the Health studies Campus, the Entrepreneurial studies Campus, the use of Living Labs such as incubators, innovation labs or Fablabs and the university culture life. The results show how universities can develop sustainable strategies focusing on entrepreneurship and choosing the right location. This paper will be useful to anyone interested on developing sustainable initiatives on campuses using entrepreneurship and establishing relations with local businesses and the public authorities in order to develop sustainability at the local level.