Educating for innovation: students’ perceptions of the learning environment and of their own innovation competence

Developing students’ innovation competence is becoming increasingly important in higher education, yet few studies have actually investigated whether current learning environments are aimed at promoting this competence and whether students perceive that they have mastered this competence. This study aimed to map students’ perceptions of the learning environment in terms of whether their schools’ curricula were directed towards developing innovation competence and their perceptions of their own innovation competence. A survey was created and administered to 130 students of Built Environment programs at eight Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Students perceived a supportive learning environment for innovation competence only to a limited degree. On the other hand, students rated their own innovation competence moderately highly. Despite positive perceptions of students’ own innovation competence, the learning environment was only to a limited degree aimed at developing innovation competence. The results suggest that universities might need to focus more explicitly and structurally on the teaching and assessment of innovation competence.