Academia and Entrepreneurship. An unusual partnership? Maybe. An important one? Absolutely.
Can entrepreneurship be taught?
Of course, it can. Entrepreneurship has no shortage of theories.
There are textbooks dedicated to it. Universities offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in it. Researchers spend entire careers studying it. There are frameworks, models, business canvases, theories of innovation, market assessment tools, strategic planning tools, and enough literature to fill an entire library.
But for all the theories we discuss,
Can entrepreneurship be taught by someone who has never built an enterprise?
The answer, surprisingly, is still yes.
Because entrepreneurship has never belonged exclusively to one world.
It doesn't belong only to academia, where theories are developed and tested. And it doesn't belong only to entrepreneurs, whose knowledge often come from years of trial, error, intuition, and lived experience.
Entrepreneurship probably exists somewhere between the two. And, both forms of knowledge matter. But the ideal spot is where these two sectors are brough into the same room.
That spot is what makes the partnership between Purbanchal University and InElam Project of Helvetas Nepal so interesting.
And at the very center of it all, there is a tool developed and used by the project for the past six years. Area Potential Survey (APS). InElam Project has used the Area Potential Survey (APS) to identify enterprise opportunities across different regions of Nepal.
This tool (before discussing products, technologies, or markets) is designed to spend time understanding the landscape itself. It listens to the geography first.
It studies the place and asks, “What resources are abundant in the region? Which products can be developed from those resources? Is there an existing market in the region? What technologies are needed? How much investment will be required? How many jobs could potentially be created?”
The answers are then documented in a report that becomes a roadmap for enterprise development
The best way to understand the tool better is through the story of herbal essential oil enterprises in Madhesh Province, which tells what exactly does APS do after it enters a community.
In 2014, APS studies conducted in the Central Terai showed the untapped potential of medicinal and aromatic plants. It further began studying the geography itseld. Studies show Nepal has more than 1,600 identified non-timber forest products with medicinal and aromatic value, while 700 species have already been verified by the Department of Plant Resources.
The study identified herbal processing as an opportunity in districts such as Mahottari, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Kailali, and Kanchanpur.
The survey went further as finding available resources alone doesn’t create an enterprise. It mapped cultivation, processing, by-products, markets, technologies, financing mechanisms, and business relationships. It examined the entire value chain rather than focusing on a single product.
The findings also revealed a major barrier.
Essential oil processing technologies were expensive. Distillation units had to be imported from India, and a single processing machine cost approximately NPR 700,000.
Rather than accepting expensive imported technology as an unavoidable reality, the project collaborated with local mechanical workshops to develop the technology locally, reducing the cost by 60 percent and gradually expanding access in rural areas.
Financial institutions were connected to producer groups. Local resource persons were trained. Contract farming relationships were established with industries. Service providers facilitated business development. Markets were explored. The value chain eventually expanded to include citronella, mint, chamomile, lemongrass, palmarosa, turmeric, and eclipta.
According to the assessment, a single processing enterprise could generate employment for 40 to 50 additional people through activities such as nursery management, cultivation, collection, processing, transportation, and trading.
Perhaps that is why Purbanchal University decided to include the Area Potential Survey methodology in its entrepreneurship curriculum in 2024.
And in August 2026, the partnership took another important step forward.
22 academicians from colleges across Madhesh Province participated in training on the APS methodology and the newly developed curriculum content. The approach will now be taught in business schools affiliated with Purbanchal University across Nepal. A total of 44 academicians will be trained in total.
Professor Dr. Uttam Kumar Regmi, Dean of the Faculty of Management, emphasized the need to promote a culture that creates jobs through sustainable enterprises and employment opportunities. According to him, that vision was one of the key reasons behind incorporating APS into the curriculum.
Perhaps the university's presentation summarized the philosophy most effectively.
APS transforms students into learners, investigators, and potential entrepreneurs at the same time.
And maybe that is where the real significance of this partnership lies. Development organization generate field evidence. Enterprise Service Providers work directly with businesses. Entrepreneurs contribute lived experiences.
Universities provide theory, research, analysis, and academic rigor.
And when all these actors begin working together, perhaps they will begin testing theory against practice. They might also begin identifying the gaps between textbook teach and the lived experiences of entrepreneurs. More excitingly, over time, they might begin building something that has been largely missing from entrepreneurship education in Nepal. A theory of entrepreneurship that is rooted in Nepal itself. Also, students get to read the case studies based on local entrepreneurs and local enterprises through stories that reflect their own communities.
With more than 20,000 BBA students expected to study the course every year in Purbanchal University and its affiliated colleges, APS, the tool used by the project, is becoming part of how Nepal teaches entrepreneurship itself.
