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Purpose – In recent years there has been growing focus on the innovative and profit generating value of design thinking in a businesses. This attention is also reflected in business education. The basic thesis is that design thinking is particular relavant to entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this paper is to propose a teaching model, named the DesUni model. The model suggests a novel design-oriented approach to entrepreneurship education. Design/methodology/approach – This paper relies on the interfaces between the literatures on entrepreneurship education and design thinking. From reviewing and synthesizing these literatures new insights are offered into how to develop entrepreneurship education through design thinking. Findings – The DesUni teaching model offers a significant shift in paradigm changing the traditional didactic assumptions of entrepreneurship education. It involves a change in curriculum, teaching methods, use of knowledge, teaching style, teacher-student relations, culture, habitat and assessment. Originality/value – The DesUni teaching model offers a unique way to form an entrepreneurship curriculum. This curriculum bridges the discovering of the present with what might be in the future along with that students are collaborating with different stakeholders.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study different aspects and tensional forces that play a role in the internal and contextual negotiation that takes place within students in the exploration of the possible identity of entrepreneur. It expands the knowledge of how the university context influences student entrepreneurial processes from a multiple identity perspective. The findings are related to discussions of entrepreneurship education. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual paper that presents a framework on student entrepreneurial identity sense making that is grounded in a multiple identity perspective. The framework is illustrated by ten narrative cases on student entrepreneurship. Findings The framework suggests four different ways students make sense of identity in the process of exploring the entrepreneurial identity along with their university studies. In this process students negotiate between the two identities of “student” and “entrepreneur”, both demanding in time, effort and commitment, and they in different manners struggle with balancing university belonging and entrepreneurial distinctiveness. Originality/value The framework serves as a point of departure for discussing the psychological processes and tensions associated with students’ entrepreneurial identity construction, and what it means to entrepreneurship education. It is suggested that universities to a higher degree have to view themselves as psychological institutional moratoriums and thus as platforms of identity explorations rather than deterministic systems preparing students for certain careers to support students in becoming entrepreneurs.

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