Fiona Oster is the Programme Director for the MSc in Sustainable Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Academic Lead for Entrepreneurship at the University of Birmingham Dubai, where she also serves as an Assistant Professor in Management. Dedicated to excellence and innovation in teaching, she has received multiple awards recognizing her contributions to education. She is passionate about fostering responsible and impactful entrepreneurial thinking, creating a vibrant hub for student innovation.
As Academic Lead for Entrepreneurship, Fiona has also co-designed and delivers the Ministry-mandated Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, and Innovation module for all undergraduate students. She is spearheading its ongoing development as part of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiative, is overseeing the UK/Dubai Intercampus Entrepreneurship competition, is leading a campus incubator initiative, and is collaborating to embed entrepreneurship into the Biomedical Science programme.
With extensive international experience, Fiona has developed and delivered curricula at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Germany, Ireland, and Dubai. Her expertise spans Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management, Business Strategy, International Business, and Marketing.
Her doctoral research focuses on low-carbon innovation clusters, outbound open innovation practices in SMEs, and the commercialization of medical technologies.
A proven leader, she has spearheaded major initiatives in Ireland, including securing significant EU funding to establish a low carbon innovation cluster. She also led the development of a multilingual European online training programme for business advisors and chaired a national initiative to enhance pathways between further and higher education by way of example. In Germany, she led a project to integrate authentic business assessments into MSc modules in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining academia, she enjoyed a dynamic career in international business development and marketing in Switzerland and worked as an independent instructional designer and business trainer, coach and mentor for start-ups in Ireland.
Fluent in German and Italian, she brings a truly global perspective to her teaching and research.