Developing Entrepreneurial Learning Outcomes for Sustainable Societal Change: A Case Insight from a Danish University of Applied Sciences

This case insight examines how entrepreneurial learning can be meaningfully integrated into healthcare education to equip students with the competencies needed to address complex global sustainability challenges. While entrepreneurship education (EE) is increasingly promoted as a strategic response to crises such as climate change, public health emergencies, and social inequality, its implementation within professional healthcare programs in higher education remains contested and underexplored, particularly regarding student engagement and the perceived relevance of these learning formats. Drawing on a single-case study at a Danish university of applied sciences, the study examines how EE combined with problem-based learning (PBL) influences female healthcare students’ entrepreneurial agency and engagement when engaged in topics such as sustainable societal change. Using a qualitative case-study approach, the analysis explores factors that both enable and hinder students’ participation in EE, with specific attention to tensions between discipline-oriented learning goals and the entrepreneurial competencies such as initiative-taking, innovation, and action orientation. The findings indicate that while EE and PBL can strengthen women’s entrepreneurial agency and capacity to address sustainability challenges, misalignment between EE pedagogies and students’ professional identity formation can generate resistance towards the learning formats. Key barriers include the lack of clear relevance to future healthcare roles and the limited institutional integration of EE into discipline-specific curricula. The study contributes to EE and healthcare pedagogy by identifying critical conditions for embedding EE in applied professional programs. It highlights the importance of aligning EE with students’ professional self-understanding and demonstrates how gender-sensitive, context-specific EE design can enhance engagement and societal impact. These insights offer practical guidance for HEIs seeking to position EE as a transformative educational strategy within healthcare education.