Cultivation of Innovative and Entrepreneurial Undergraduates Based on the Concept of Living Lab: Theory and Practice

Traditional undergraduate education in Chinese universities is notorious for its three limitations. First, students are weak in their innovative and entrepreneurial abilities. Second, students lack teamwork experiences. Third, undergraduate education is isolated from research. This paper first introduces the concept of Living Lab, then it reports our practice of applying it to the undergraduate programs of English and E-commerce in order to overcome the three limitations listed above. The preliminary practice proves that this concept can bind university education with social needs and thus can cultivate innovative and entrepreneurial undergraduates. Meanwhile, it also helps Chinese universities to improve its own research and the abilities to serve society. In this way, this concept efficiently integrates the three principal functions of higher education, i. e., research, training and service, and thus can be introduced into undergraduate education practice on a larger scale.