Deakin Business School has been awarded the 2026 USASBE Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education – Excellence in Pedagogical Innovation Award (USA) for its Business Development Clinic program.
The announcement was made at the USASBE 2026 Conference, held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from February 18–21, 2026. One of the leading global gatherings focused on advancing entrepreneurship education and research. I had the privilege of attending the conference as part of the event.
USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) is one of the world’s leading bodies advancing entrepreneurship education and research. To receive this recognition from an international peer-reviewed panel is both humbling and energising.
The Business Development Clinic: Real Businesses. Real Outcomes.
The award recognises Deakin’s Business Development Clinic’s scalable Work-Integrated Learning model designed to move beyond classroom simulation.
Instead of relying on case studies alone, students consult directly with real small and medium enterprises. They apply structured strategic growth frameworks in live business environments, working alongside founders and leadership teams to address practical commercial challenges.
Since its inception, the Clinic has engaged more than 90 SMEs. In doing so, it has embedded measurable entrepreneurship capability development for students while delivering tangible strategic value to industry partners.
The model was intentionally built to bridge academic theory and applied business practice combining structured frameworks with the complexity of real-world decision-making.
What stood out most to the judges wasn’t just the structure. It was the philosophy behind it.
As Krystal Geyer, Award Program Chair and Associate Director at the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio University, shared:
“The judges for this category felt that this program is one that other institutions can learn from and look to as a model for pedagogical innovation. What really stood out was the shift in agency. Rather than positioning businesses as the definers of problems and students as responders, this program empowers students to identify the problems to solve.”
“Another powerful strength of this program’s model is its open-ended design, allowing for exploration, iteration, and authentic learning. It creates space for creativity, experimentation, and even productive failure — all essential components of innovation.”
That shift in agency is deliberate.
In business, no one hands us a neat problem statement. We have to find the problem worth solving. We have to test ideas. We have to get it wrong sometimes. Then adjust.
The Clinic was built with that reality in mind.
What This Recognition Affirms
This international recognition affirms that:
- Experiential learning can be both rigorous and impactful
- Entrepreneurship education can operate at global standards
- Industry-embedded curriculum can scale sustainably
- University–SME partnerships create genuine mutual value
It also reflects the collective commitment of Deakin’s students, academic staff and industry partners who’ve embraced innovation in teaching and learning — not as a buzzword, but as a practice.
Raising the Bar for Entrepreneurship Education
Entrepreneurship education must extend beyond simulation and into structured, standards-aligned real-world engagement.
The Business Development Clinic demonstrates that it’s possible to integrate academic rigour with applied strategic impact at scale.
International recognition at USASBE 2026 reinforces Deakin Business School’s position as a leader in industry-embedded management education. More importantly, it signals a continued commitment to advancing globally connected, practice-driven entrepreneurship learning.
Because if we want better founders, better operators and better leaders, we have to let them do the work for real, not just talk about it.=