Purpose – In the contemporary higher education landscape, there is an increasing emphasis on the integration of entrepreneurship education (EE) as a strategic tool to address societal challenges. However, there is a paucity of research that explores the manner in which EE contributes to sustainable innovation and community development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Design/methodology/approach – A multiple-case study was conducted of three representative programmes from Hungary and Poland. Institutional and policy documents, programme materials, evaluations and official statistics were triangulated and then synthesized cross-culturally against predefined criteria. Findings – The following models have been identified as exemplars of best practice in this field: (1) Centrally coordinated, curriculum-embedded models [for example, Hungary’s Hungarian Startup University Program (HSUP)] that broaden access via credits, stipends and national coverage and (2) decentralized, ecosystem-anchored pathways (for example, Poland’s Aula Polska, PFR School of Pioneers and WUT’s Startup Entrepreneurship) that deepens community embeddedness through peer learning, mentoring networks and problem-driven projects. Across cases, entrepreneurship education fosters human-capital formation, opportunity recognition in green and social domains and university–community linkages; persistent challenges include high dropout rates, fragmented governance and weak long-term impact tracking. Originality/value – The present study demonstrates how governance design conditions EE’s sustainability contribution pathways, which are comprised of the following three elements: mindset formation, project-based experimentation and community and industry interfaces. HSUP primarily focuses on scaling inclusive access and early prototyping at the national level, while the Polish programmes primarily seek to strengthen local innovation communities and promote translational learning. The study contributes to the refinement of theory on entrepreneurial universities by establishing a correlation between EE design choices and sustainable innovation and community development mechanisms in CEE. Furthermore, it offers actionable implications for programme evaluation and funding.