Abstract
Keywords Entrepreneurial Universities; Student success; Critical Thinking; Integrated thinking. Abstract The need for Entrepreneurial Universities in South Africa is growing because the South African government is pressured to keep financial commitments to students and universities. A core aspect of any university is to manage and support student success. Consequently, complex university systems within the institution of Higher Education must be managed to create opportunities and optimise resources for student success. This conceptual paper explores how entrepreneurial universities may approach student success. The literature review offers a meta-theoretical view of a typical university system and the thinking that drives the system. The research paradigm is interpretivist as the researcher becomes an instrument and argues, explores and compiles a conceptual conjecture of an approach to student success within the context of Entrepreneurial Universities. The conjecture proposes that Entrepreneurial Universities require integrated thinking in their systems and that all people in the systems must be equipped to analyse, synthesise, evaluate and create. The subsystems within the university system also need to be integrated, and data plays a vital role in iterative and more agile decision-making than in typical universities. The proposed approach to student success provides implications for university management teams.