The scientific day of the College of Business at Al al-Bayt University was not just an academic event, nor a ceremonial occasion added to the university activities calendar, but rather it came as an explicit announcement about a new phase the university is experiencing; a phase where entrepreneurial thinking advances, along with the courage to ask tough questions, the ability to link knowledge with the economy, and education with impact.
What Al al-Bayt University is experiencing today in terms of entrepreneurial and creative development did not come out of nowhere, but is the result of a conscious administrative vision that realized early on that the university could no longer continue with the same traditional logic. Administration read the economic transformations deeply, worked on improving its resources, diversifying its revenues, and rationalizing its expenses, without compromising the essence of the academic process, but rather by enhancing its efficiency. Nevertheless, it did not stop at the numbers, but launched a revolutionary update and overhaul that reached facilities, infrastructure, and educational environment, to become a university space stimulating creativity, not just lecture halls.
In this environment, the business college's scientific day confirmed that the college is not isolated from this transformation, but at its heart. A college that realizes its role is no longer confined to graduating diploma holders, but to directly contribute in shaping an economic mind capable of understanding, analyzing, and producing. Here, my lectures were an attempt to open the discussion from its roots, not just from its edges.
When we talk today about the role of universities in supporting the national economy, we are not talking about a distant future, but about a reality that is now forming. About a fundamental question that is no longer possible to escape: Has the university continued to play its role as a diploma factory, or is it time to transform into a real economic value producer? The economy does not wait, and the job market does not reward those who only hold a degree, but those who have the ability to produce, innovate, and adapt. Here precisely begins the real challenge for universities, especially business colleges, because they do not just graduate employees, but contribute – whether they want or not – in shaping a complete economic mind.
The gap between education and the job market is no longer just a skills gap, but also a mental gap. We teach students how to succeed in exams, but we don't teach them how to succeed in the market. We teach them how to answer, not how to ask. How to execute, not how to innovate. Hence, the university is required to redefine itself: not as a place for reception, but as a production system, where ideas are generated, tested, fail, then reworded until they transform into a project, a company, or a real solution to an economic or social problem.
The question posed in front of business and entrepreneurship students was direct and shocking at the same time: Why does a business idea graduate from the university to look for an incubator outside of it? And why isn't the university itself the first intelligent investor in the minds of its students? Aligning education with the job market does not mean chasing the market step by step, as the market is faster than any curriculum, but it does mean graduating a person capable of creating their own job, not waiting for it, and able to redefine their role as the market changes.
From here, the transition from "course" logic to "marketable skill" logic becomes a necessity, not a luxury. From a diploma hanging on the wall to a live professional portfolio that proves what a graduate can actually do. An entrepreneur is not measured by their grade point average, but by their ability to turn an idea into an impact, a loss into a lesson, and an experience into value. As for digital skills, they are not additional courses, but a complete way of thinking; the ability to analyze data, understand systems, and make decisions in an uncertain environment.
The real danger lies not in graduating students who can't program, but in graduating students who think analogically in a digital world. Here lies specifically the responsibility of business colleges, in integrating digital thinking into finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, supply chains, and decision-making processes. As for partnership with the private sector, it is not a sponsoring partnership or mere slogans, but a partnership of accountability for results, with employers participating in the design of curricula and the making of graduates, not in criticizing them later.
Entrepreneurship can not be reduced to seasonal events or fleeting competitions. It is a strategic economic choice, long-term construction, and projects that live beyond the initial excitement and create real, not imaginary, jobs. The entrepreneurial university does not only graduate company founders, but also graduates an entrepreneurial mindset in the employee, the manager, and the decision maker.
The scientific day of the College of Business at Al al-Bayt University was not just a celebration of what has been achieved, but an announcement of intention for what is to come. A clear message that the university is capable, when vision, management, and will are available, of being an economic driver, not a spectator. And the question is no longer: Where did you graduate from? but: What can you build? And what impact do you leave? Here, the university becomes part of the solution, not part of the problem, and part of the future, not of the past.
