This article discusses the various ways in which the societal demand for innovation edifies the role of university pedagogies. By zooming in on the discipline of political science and the learning outcomes defined at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, the article argues that there are two contemporary conceptions of innovation in current university teaching practice: one that emphasizes innovation as the management of the unpredictable future and one that relates to politics as a spatially delimited sphere. While the former puts premium on the creative ability to seize the future, the latter stresses the importance of past experiences for the accumulation of knowledge. These concepts, the article argues, evoke two different understandings of the relationship between university education and social innovation. The article concludes with a discussion of how different learning strategies support these two views of innovation