ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1572898
From Syllabi to Startups: Lessons from Eight African Case Studies on University-Industry Collaboration and Agri-Entrepreneurship Education
Provisionally accepted
- 1Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco
- 2Guido Carli Free International University for Social Studies, Rome, Italy
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Agriculture is an important component of the African economy, contributing to growth and employment. Still, it remains plagued by problems linked to limited modernization, low productivity, and declining interest by job seekers, particularly among young people. To remedy this situation, the AgriENGAGE project, a European Commission-funded initiative involving eight African and two European universities, seeks to improve agricultural education and stimulate entrepreneurship in African universities. Interviews and reports by these universities highlight the four essential elements: the need to find the right balance between theory and practice, the role of practical learning and incubation, the place of public support, and the need for industry involvement. Despite the efforts made, including AgriENGAGE, some problems persist, such as the need for qualified teachers, the lack of resources and infrastructure, and the limited collaboration of industry.
Keywords: Triple Helix (TH) model, Agri-entrepreneurship Education, African higher education, university-industry collaboration, Agricultural Transformation in Africa
Received: 07 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chfadi, Abdulkader and Chirinda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bisan Abdulkader, Guido Carli Free International University for Social Studies, Rome, Italy
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