Be part of Student Entrepreneurship Week 2026

Dear students

Are you curious about entrepreneurship, innovation, freelancing, research commercialisation or turning your degree into real-world impact?

Join us for Student Entrepreneurship Week 2026, a faculty-focused programme designed to help students explore what an entrepreneurial mindset looks like across different academic disciplines.

Whether you see yourself as a future founder, freelancer, consultant, innovator, creative professional, researcher or changemaker, this week will offer practical insights into how your studies can connect to opportunity, enterprise and impact.

Student Entrepreneurship Week 2026 will take place from Monday, 24 August to Thursday, 3 September 2026 at various faculty and campus venues, including Leslie Social, P.D. Hahn Building, Leslie Commerce, Snape LT1, Francis Ames, MU1 and selected off-campus ecosystem sites.

Programme highlights include:

• Humanities: Creative work, freelancing, pricing, boundaries and building sustainable creative careers.
• Science: Research commercialisation, spin-offs, scientific consulting and pathways beyond academia.
• Commerce: Lean ventures, finance for founders, cashflow, pricing and student pitch-style activities.
• Engineering & the Built Environment: Engineers as founders, prototyping and moving from capstone projects to companies.
• Health Sciences: Health innovation, ethics, impact and entrepreneurship beyond the hospital.
• Office for Inclusivity & Change: Entrepreneurship at the intersection of innovation, justice and market opportunity.

Sessions will include talks, panels, workshops, site visits and opportunities to engage with UCT’s broader entrepreneurship ecosystem. The programme will also include optional ecosystem experiences such as visits to spaces including d-school Afrika, Artscape, GSB Solution Space, Novoccino, a 3-D printing UCT Entrepreneur Alumni business, and other innovation-linked environments.

Speaker confirmations and booking links will be shared soon via MyCareer and UCT communication channels.

Student Entrepreneurship Week 2026 will spotlight entrepreneurship within faculties and show that entrepreneurial thinking is not limited to business students. It is a way of approaching problems, creating value, building sustainable careers and responding to complex social, environmental and economic challenges.

Come and discover how your degree, ideas and talents can become a pathway to innovation, impact and sustainable opportunity.

Student Entrepreneurship Week 2026
Think boldly. Build practically. Create impact.

Careers Service