Entrepreneurship Education In Ireland Towards Creating The Entrepreneurial Graduate

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This explanation in relation to entrepreneurship education in ireland towards creating the entrepreneurial graduate.

Entrepreneurship Education in Ireland Towards Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate 2009
Entrepreneurship Education in Ireland
Towards Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate
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Table of Contents
Foreword 5
Acknowledgements 7
The ACE Initiative 9
Glossary 11
Executive Summary 15
1 Introduction 19
2 Methodology 29
2.1 Aims and Objectives 31
2.2 Methodological Approach 32
3 Findings 41
3.1 Institutional Infrastructure, Strategy and Culture 43
3.2 Entrepreneurship Education Survey 48
3.2.1 Current Provision 48
3.2.2 Entrepreneurship Education for Non-Business Disciplines 51
3.3 Undergraduate Survey 52
3.3.1 Findings 53
3.4 Postgraduate Survey 62
3.5 The Enterprise Survey 65
4 International Good Practice Exemplars 67
4.1 Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship (NICENT) 70
4.1.1 Approaches to Delivering Entrepreneurship Education 70
4.1.2 Evaluating the Provision of Entrepreneurship Education 74
4.2 University of Satakunta, Finland 75
4.2.1 Enterprise Accelerator Programme 75
4.2.2 Soteekki – A Social Enterprise Education Initiative 77

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Entrepreneurship Education in Ireland Towards Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate 2009
4.3 National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) 78
4.3.1. Targeting Student Engagement 79
4.3.2 Targeting Educators and Campus Entrepreneurship Agents 80
4.3.3 Leadership Development Programme 81
4.4 Entrepreneurship Education Delivery Models 82
5 Conclusions 85
6 Recommendations 97
7 Implications for Future Research 103
References 107
Appendices 113
Appendix I: ACE Initiative International Advisory Committee
Appendix II: ACE Initiative Management and Development Committees
Appendix III: Participating HEIs
Foreword
It is now recognised that the bene?ts of entrepreneurship education are not limited
to the creation of new business ventures and subsequent new jobs but will develop
key competencies of students, develop their mindsets and in turn enable them to
be more creative and self-con?dent in whatever they undertake. By developing an
entrepreneurial capacity among students, the economic and social well-being of a nation
will be enhanced at a time when it is needed the most.
Currently entrepreneurship programmes are not available to students of all non-business
disciplines across the third level sector in Ireland and in light of this report, developing
such offerings would have far-reaching bene?ts on many levels from overall economic
stimulation right through to individual personal growth and development.
This study was commissioned by the ACE (Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship) Initiative
Management Committee as a national research project to examine entrepreneurship
education across the third level sector in Ireland, from both a ‘demand side’ and ‘supply
side’ perspective. The ?ndings presented in this report highlight the gaps which exist
in the provision of entrepreneurship education and the challenges and issues which
need to be addressed to ensure a level playing ?eld is created giving students across all
disciplines an opportunity to develop enterprise skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. The
international best practice cases also provide an insight into how particular Institutions
have developed effective models for the implementation of entrepreneurship across all
disciplines and all levels.
I welcome this study as a valuable contribution to our understanding of the need for the
development of a culture which appreciates the potential bene?ts of putting structures
and resources in place which extends the provision of entrepreneurship education to all
students across the third level sector.

Professor Paul Hannon
Director of Research and Education
National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship
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Entrepreneurship Education in Ireland Towards Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate 2009
Acknowledgements
This research report is an output of the Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship (ACE)
Initiative which is part-funded under the Strategic Innovation Fund by the Higher
Education Authority (HEA) in Ireland and co-funded by the Partner Institutions: Dundalk
Institute of Technology (DkIT), Institute of Technology Sligo (ITS), Institute of Technology
Blanchardstown (ITB), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and the National University of
Ireland in Galway (NUIG). Sincerest thanks are offered to Minister Batt O’Keeffe and
the HEA who have funded and supported this research and the ACE Initiative from
its conception. The vision, commitment and support of Senior Management across
all Partner Institutions to develop and deliver effective entrepreneurship education
grounded in cutting-edge research must also be commended.
This report was compiled by representatives of the ACE Initiative Development Committee
(See Appendix II) and also includes:
Angela Hamouda Dundalk Institute of Technology •
Lorna Treanor Dundalk Institute of Technology •
Roisin McGlone Institute of Technology Sligo •
Cathy O’Kelly Institute of Technology Sligo •
Dr Perry Share Institute of Technology Sligo •
Cormac McMahon Institute of Technology Blanchardstown •
Claire Quigley Institute of Technology Blanchardstown •
Caroline O’Reilly Cork Institute of Technology •
Dr. Daniel Boyd Cork Institute of Technology •
Maébh Coleman National University of Ireland, Galway •
Niamh Corcoran National University of Ireland, Galway •
The ACE Initiative Committee was facilitated by colleagues in Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs), nationally and internationally. We sincerely thank the wide range of
research participants for their input into the ACE Initiative.
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The Ace Initiative
To encourage and sustain a vibrant, successful knowledge economy, Ireland must increase
the number and quality of indigenous companies and create graduates, irrespective
of discipline, who are entrepreneurial thinkers and doers. The Accelerating Campus
Entrepreneurship (ACE) Initiative seeks to explore how the Higher Education Institutions
in Ireland (HEIs) can develop and deliver a framework for embedding entrepreneurship
education across all disciplines to ful?l the aim of “Creating the Entrepreneurial
Graduate”.
For the purposes of the ACE Initiative, and indeed the research study reported in this
document, entrepreneurship is viewed as a process which begins with opportunity
recognition and then involves the acquisition of resources (technological, ?nancial and
human) to exploit that opportunity and produce a new or more valuable outcome. The
basic assumption is that the knowledge and skills required to engage in this process can
be taught and that the teaching of these skills has sound educational merit. However,
it is recognised that whilst these skills have obvious applications in the new venture
creation process, they are equally valuable within organisations (‘intrapreneurship’)
across public, private and third sectors.
The ACE Initiative evolved from a growing perception that the traditional approaches to
teaching entrepreneurship are not suited to the challenge of creating the entrepreneurial
graduate for a number of reasons, including:

Most entrepreneurship courses are underpinned by the ‘business-plan’. •
Growing evidence suggests that successful entrepreneurs depend more on
their ability to be able to adjust ?exibly to the marketplace and less on formal
business planning.
Traditional faculty structures and programmes are at odds with the cross- •
faculty approach required to support entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial learning is acquired on a ‘how-to’ basis through the processes •
of ‘doing’, ‘problem-solving’, ‘learning from others’, ‘making mistakes’, ‘risk-
taking’ and ‘pursuing opportunities’; real-world and problem-based learning
needs to be incorporated into entrepreneurial education.
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Glossary
ACE Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship
BBA Bachelor of Business Administration
BERR Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
CIT Cork Institute of Technology
DIUS Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills
DkIT Dundalk Institute of Technology
EC European Commission
EduPROF An Education and Training Conference
Entrepreneurship A process which begins with opportunity recognition and then
involves the acquisition of resources (technological, ?nancial and
human) to exploit that opportunity and produce a new or more
valuable outcome.
EU European Union
FINPIN Finnish Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network for Higher
Education
HE Higher Education
HEA Higher Education Authority
HEI Higher Education Institution
HEIF Higher Education Innovation Fund (UK)
ILO Industrial Liaison Of?cer
IoT Institute of Technology
IP Intellectual Property
ITB Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
The traditional pedagogical approach does not teach ‘know-who’, i.e. the •
management of relationships or gives the student a sense of what it ‘feels’
like to be an entrepreneur.
The ACE Initiative seeks to provide innovative approaches to entrepreneurship education
by providing the opportunity for students from non-business programmes to take
enterprise related modules. These provide the student with the simulated experience
of running and operating a real business; thereby promoting self-employment as a real,
attractive and viable career option. This process will be achieved through four inter-
related targeted actions:
Targeted Action 1: Pedagogies, Teaching and Curriculum Development. •
Targeted Action 2: Cross-Faculty Multi-disciplinary Approach. •
Targeted Action 3: Embedding Technology Entrepreneurship into •
Engineering Education, leveraging of non-curriculum
activities from Incubation/Technology Transfer Of?ces.
Targeted Action 4: Educational Organisation and Culture Change Towards •
the development of more ‘Entre-’ and ‘Intra’ -preneurial
approaches.
The ACE Initiative involves a joint collaboration between Blanchardstown Institute
of Technology (ITB), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), Institute of Technology Sligo
(ITS) and National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) and is led by Dundalk Institute
of Technology (DkIT). The project partners recognise that the process of embedding
entrepreneurship education will require fundamental organisational and cultural change
complemented by the use of new cross-Institutional and multi-disciplinary pedagogical
methodologies. This process will require re-orientation of traditional models and the
development of new staff skills and competencies and the active involvement of industry
and entrepreneurs.
Further information about the ACE Initiative, and its outputs, can be accessed via: www.
aceinitiative.ie
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ITS Institute of Technology Sligo
MA Master of Arts
MBA Masters of Business Administration
MNC Multi National Company
NCGE National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship
NICENT Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship
NUIG National University of Ireland Galway
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
QUB Queens University Belfast
RDA Regional Development Agencies (UK)
SEC Science Enterprise Challenge
SEDA Staff and Educational Development Association (UK)
SME Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
SOTEEKKI Social Enterprise Education Initiative
TTO Technology Transfer Of?cer
UU University of Ulster
Executive
Summary
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Executive Summary
In the midst of the radically altered global economic climate, the Irish Government
has reiterated its commitment to the higher education agenda. Just as increased
participation in higher education underpinned the phenomenal economic growth
and success previously enjoyed in Ireland, it is the Government’s contention that the
creation of an entrepreneurial and highly skilled workforce will not only support the
continued attraction of foreign direct investment to our shores, but will also deliver
graduates who can create indigenous employment and/or deliver bene?t to employers
aiding economic recovery. The Government’s Framework for Sustainable Economic
Renewal (2008) recognises the need to promote entrepreneurship education within the
higher education sector and pledges to progress the provision of entrepreneurship and
management training to students from non-business disciplines, especially postgraduate
research students.
It is against this contextual backdrop that this research study was undertaken in 2008.
Similar to previous studies it was found that entrepreneurship education in Ireland’s
tertiary education system remains fragmented, delivered mainly within business schools,
as structured, academic business modules which take students through a linear process
to produce a business plan. Whilst the old-fashioned, traditional theory-based lecture
remains the most commonly employed teaching method in the Irish classroom, we learn
from international research and good practice that it is experiential learning that will
most bene?t entrepreneurial students.
This study, therefore, calls for entrepreneurship education that is ‘?t-for-purpose’
today. That is, an entrepreneurship education (for and about entrepreneurship) for all
students that will not only provide theoretical knowledge but ensure graduates develop
an entrepreneurial mindset, through developing entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and
attitudes and equipping them with the key competencies to enable them to enjoy an
entrepreneurial /intrapreneurial career or engage in new venture creation. This can only
be achieved through student-centred teaching and learning that employs innovative,
experiential learning methodologies in conjunction with assessment mechanisms that
award credit for extra-curricular and practical activities delivered by a coordinated,
student-focused Institutional infrastructure. It is therefore essential that educators are
recognised and encouraged to act as “entrepreneurial champions” and provided with
the means to enhance their own teaching skills and to be entrepreneurial and innovative
in developing new teaching methods and resources.
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Seventy-eight percent (78%) of undergraduate students surveyed expressed an interest
in starting their own business at some point in the future. These students reported
that their entrepreneurial interest was most in?uenced by family members who had
started a business (33%) followed by high-pro?le entrepreneurs (22%). It must be
noted however, that this study was undertaken in late 2008, before the full ravages
of the global recession upon the Irish economy were experienced. It is intended to
survey this same student grouping in each year of their studies which will provide an
opportunity to fully explore the potential impact of the recessionary experience on their
entrepreneurial intent. This study also found that 39% of postgraduate students are
interested in setting up their own business through their college infrastructure; despite
this, there is a reported lack of student enquiries and start-ups within campus incubators.
This is due to the culmination of various factors including: a lack of communication
about, and visibility of, entrepreneurial supports and policies; a lack of coordination of
the different but complementary entrepreneurship and enterprise support activities; and
a lack of education and training for and about entrepreneurship. Additional resources
and Senior Management commitment are required to ensure the co-ordinated and
effective implementation of measures to address these issues.
Whilst 42% of Presidents reported that entrepreneurship was incorporated within their
written Mission Statement, there appeared to be structural barriers to the practical
implementation of policy. The barriers encountered in the process of translating policy
into delivery related to: in?exibility in organisational structures; timetabling and education
delivery formats; lack of development resources and limited multi-disciplinary working;
and perhaps most signi?cantly, a lack of awareness of the bene?ts to be derived, by
students and Institutions, of embedding entrepreneurship education across curricula.
There is no national framework nor an articulated strategic policy for entrepreneurship
education Institutionally, that would support education and practice among staff and
students at all levels and across all disciplines. HEI Management respondents in this study
have indicated that changing mindsets is a key challenge for improving entrepreneurship
education at an Institutional level.
The current lack of evaluation of entrepreneurship education offerings within HEIs
must also be addressed. Effective evaluation and a climate of continuous review and
improvement can only serve to enhance student learning.
Therefore, the HEIs in Ireland face a steep learning curve in raising the standard of campus
entrepreneurship education and activity. They also need to bridge the gap between
academics and industry, which often results from practitioners not perceiving education
provision as relevant and many time-constrained business people see limited payback for
active participation in the education process. Industry engagement within HE is neither
widespread nor intensive despite initiatives to mainstream such collaboration. While
private funding and active engagement with entrepreneurs in the teaching process is
common within the entrepreneurial University culture of the US, this is a challenge for
the HEIs in Ireland.
This will require a cultural change and, in order to bridge the gap, industry must be
informed, and consulted, about changes in the academic agenda. It is increasingly
recognised amongst the third-level academic community that entrepreneurship education
today cannot be solely theoretical in nature.
Based on the previous discussion, it would seem that the key success factors for ‘?t-for-
purpose’ entrepreneurial education today relate to:
Policy support to ensure a strategic, integrated approach is adopted for the •
long-term placement of entrepreneurship education on the educational
agenda and to facilitate the adequate resourcing to develop the necessary
infrastructures and cultural change.
Senior Management leadership and support in resourcing entrepreneurship •
education across curricula within Institutions.
Co-ordination and promotion of activities and collaborative working between •
academics, researchers, enterprise support staff and technology transfer
functions within Institutions. In this way, programmes of enterprise support
and commercialisation assistance will be highly visible and be offered, and
accredited, as part of a wider programme of entrepreneurship and enterprise
education.
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Entrepreneurial educators, entrepreneurs and business advisers providing •
real-world simulations and experiential learning to students to ensure that
students possess the requisite theoretical and practical business knowledge,
entrepreneurial skills and competencies to equip them for employment and
enterprise creation.
New assessment methods and greater ?exibility within education design and •
delivery systems so that extra-curricular enterprise activities can be accredited
within formal learning programmes.
Effective measurement and continual improvement of offerings to ensure •
quality, relevance and effectiveness.
Forfás in their recent document, ‘Sharing Our Future: Ireland 2025: Strategic Policy
Requirements for Enterprise Development’ (2009), called for a longer-term framework to
underpin national prosperity taking into consideration that decisions made today, affect
all our tomorrows. It seems ?tting to echo this call within the education context. In
order for the tertiary education tier in Ireland to ful?l its objectives of enabling students to
ful?l their potential and of delivering graduates who can create indigenous employment
or deliver bene?t to employers, change must occur. Entrepreneurship education must
be made available to all students in Ireland within the higher education sector. This will
require strategic vision and leadership from Senior Management within Higher Education
Institutions and the allocation of the necessary resources by Government to enable the
conversion of policy into action.
Section 1
Introduction
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Section 1
Introduction
The Higher Education sector in Ireland comprises Universities and Institutes of
Technology. There are thirteen Institutes of Technology (IoTs) located throughout the
country, providing a comprehensive range of courses from craft/apprentice programmes
to higher technical/technological education through two-year Higher Certi?cates, three-
year Bachelor Degrees and three to ?ve-year Honours Bachelor Degrees. The Institutes
also provide a range of postgraduate programmes at Postgraduate Diploma, Masters and
Doctoral level. In addition, Ireland has seven Universities: NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth,
University College Cork, University College Dublin, Dublin City University, Trinity College
Dublin and the University of Limerick.
The Department of Education and Science is the Government Department with overall
responsibility for the administration of higher education. The Higher Education Authority
(HEA) is the statutory planning and development body for higher education and research
in Ireland. The HEA has wide advisory powers throughout the whole of the third-level
education sector. In addition, it is the funding authority for the Universities, Institutes of
Technology and a number of designated higher education Institutions.
Participation in third level education in Ireland has witnessed extraordinary growth in
recent decades with statistics from the Department of Education and Science Ireland
showing an increase from 11% (21,000 persons) in 1965 to an estimated 57% (137,000
persons) in 2003 (OECD, 2004). Ireland’s recognition of the important contribution a skilled
and educated workforce can make to the economy assisted the phenomenal economic
growth of the Celtic Tiger era. The growth in tertiary education was accompanied by a
250% improvement in average material living standards (OECD, 2004).
The European Commission (2006) identi?ed the encouragement of innovation and
entrepreneurship as a micro-economic policy requirement for Ireland. In addition it
was recommended (EC, 2004) that entrepreneurship education objectives should be
incorporated within national curricula, accompanied by practical implementation
guidelines, support mechanisms and teacher training, in order to facilitate its local
implementation (Cooney and Murray, 2008).
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The Irish Government, in line with European policy, has outlined its commitment to
the inclusion of entrepreneurship education within curricula across all sectors. This
emphasis on embedding entrepreneurship as a discipline area within second and third
level educational curricula is most evident in the Enterprise Strategy Group’s Report
‘Ahead of the Curve’(2004), with the promotion of indigenous Entrepreneurship
considered critical to continued economic success. This was further supported by the
recent National Development Plan (2007-2013) which allocated a signi?cant portion
of its budget to improving Research and Development and commercialisation, as well
as investing in start-ups and growth enterprises (Treanor, 2009). Since the introduction
of the ‘Small Business Act’ for Europe in June 2008, individual EU member countries,
including Ireland, have sought to strengthen their SME policy.
This policy trend, evident across all tiers of education systems throughout Europe and
the US in recent years, undoubtedly emanates from international literature espousing
the bene?ts to students, economic development and national competitiveness (Bennett,
2006). At the individual level, Henry, Hill and Leitch (2003) assert that students who have
completed entrepreneurship programmes are more likely to:
Create more businesses and employment. •
Generate more business contacts. •
Have a broader range of skills and knowledge. •
Possess greater self-con?dence in their entrepreneurial abilities. •
Test the commercial viability of their idea. •
Improve their employability even if they do not start a business. •
Arguably, the radically altered economic climate now lends greater urgency to the
provision of education that will equip graduates with the innovative, problem-solving,
entrepreneurial skill sets required to promote enterprise and economic recovery.
Entrepreneurship education in Ireland however, was identi?ed as being fragmented
by Goodbody (2002) and in the GEM Ireland 2007 Report (Fitzsimons and O’Gorman,
2008), which highlighted the absence of a coherent entrepreneurship education
strategy, despite evidence that Ireland’s entrepreneurs are more likely to have a third level
education as a minimum. In addition, the GEM Ireland 2008 report provides indicative
evidence that the provision of entrepreneurship education and training ‘does increase
the intention to become an entrepreneur’ (Fitzsimons and O’Gorman, 2009).
Jamieson (1984) distinguished between education and training; there is also an
important distinction between educating about enterprise which is academic in nature,
and educating for enterprise, which prepares aspiring entrepreneurs for the process
of new venture creation. These are distinct from training in enterprise to established
entrepreneurs. It appears that for national objectives pertaining to economic recovery
and development to be ful?lled, Ireland must move away from typically educating about
entrepreneurship to providing education for entrepreneurship.
Indeed, the comprehensive audit of entrepreneurship education in Ireland recently
undertaken by Cooney and Murray (2008) casts doubt upon the potential for
entrepreneurship education, as it is currently delivered in Ireland, to deliver on the
objective of increasing indigenous entrepreneurs.
There is increasing consensus that effective entrepreneurship education is not book-
based but should be more interactive and real-world based. Dana (1987) suggests that
the entrepreneurial learning style requires active participation as opposed to ‘chalk and
talk’ instruction. The difference in approach was succinctly summated by Gibb (1996),
as follows:
Conventional Approach Enterprising Approach
Major focus on content Major focus on process delivery
Led by teacher Ownership of learning by participant
Expert ‘hands-down’ knowledge Teacher as fellow learner / facilitator
Emphasis on ‘know-what’ Emphasis on ‘know-how’ and ‘know-
who’
Participants passively receive knowledge Participants generate knowledge
Learning objectives imposed Learning objectives negotiated
Emphasis on theory Emphasis on practice
Subject / functional focus Problem / multidisciplinary process
Sessions heavily programmed Sessions ?exible and responsive
to needs
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International research also highlights the bene?ts of providing entrepreneurship
education to those students outside the business school (Hill, Ó’Cinnéide and Kiesner
2003; European Commision, 2008). There would appear to be an inherent logic
in educating students for entrepreneurship through a multi-disciplinary approach,
especially for graduates in technical disciplines where self-employment is a traditional
outcome. Cooney and Murray (2008) suggest that internationally, entrepreneurship or
enterprise based modules are increasingly being incorporated into non-business courses;
more signi?cantly, “interest and demand in these modules is growing among science,
engineering, and arts faculties (Cooney and Murray 2008:28).”
Despite this reported demand for entrepreneurship education and training amongst
science and technology students in Ireland, the number of student enterprise enquiries
is low, with student start-ups remaining lower still. This is despite the Government’s
signi?cant ?nancial investment in campus incubation facilities in Ireland, via the
‘Third Level Business Incubator Initiative’ which commenced in 1997
1
; the aim of that
programme was to support balanced regional development through incubating High
Potential Start-Up enterprises which are typically high-technology enterprises with
signi?cant growth and export potential. There is anecdotal evidence from practitioners
that the lack of entrepreneurial graduates may result from the interplay of several factors
including:
A lack of entrepreneurial training on most undergraduate and postgraduate •
programmes and, in particular, non-business based disciplines.
The absence of tangible links between campus incubators/technology transfer •
of?ces and academic programmes.
Little evidence of collaborations between Schools and a lack of focus on •
graduates as potential employers.
1 The total investment in campus business incubation activity stands at over €46 million; €38m in incubators
in Institutes of Technology, which is part-?nanced by the European Regional Development Fund, a €4.2 million
investment in University-based incubation centres, and a €4.1 million investment in University Bio-incubation
facilities - According to Mr Micheál Martin T.D. at the Of?cial Opening of the Tom Crean Business Centre in the
Institute of Technology in Tralee on March 15th 2006. Last accessed: November 2009 viahttp://www.entemp.
ie/press/2006/20060315a.htm.
The Irish Government has recently pledged to “progress the provision of entrepreneurship
and management training skills on scienti?c and engineering doctoral programmes in
universities” as part of its “Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal” (Department
of Taoiseach, 2008:16). In this document, the requirement to develop new approaches
to entrepreneurship education within the Higher Education sector is highlighted, in order
to secure an enterprise economy and an ideas economy, so that Ireland becomes not only
an open economy suitable for Foreign Direct Investment, but an open entrepreneurial
economy.
The existing literature, national policies and the good practice examples discussed in
this document repeatedly discuss education for entrepreneurship as being an education
that will ensure graduates develop an entrepreneurial mindset, through developing
their entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and attitudes and equipping them with the key
entrepreneurial competences. This in turn, is considered to motivate and equip graduates
to enjoy an entrepreneurial (intrapreneurial) career or engage in new venture creation.
The National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) in the UK, published an
outcomes framework (by Gibb, 1996) outlining the various stages and outcomes of
entrepreneurship education [See Figure 1].
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Desired Outcomes
Category
Description of Desired Outcome
Entrepreneurial behaviours,
attitudes and skills
developed
Opportunity seeking •
Initiative taking •
Ownership of a development •
Commitment to see things through •
Personal focus of control (autonomy) •
Intuitive decision making with limited •
information
Networking capacity •
Strategic thinking •
Negotiation capacity •
Selling/persuasive capacity •
Achievement orientation •
Calculated risk-taking •
Motivated towards an
entrepreneurial career
Understand the bene?ts •
Can compare with employee career •
Have some “heroes” as friends, •
acquaintances
Have images of entrepreneurial people “just •
like them”
Understanding processes of
venture creation
Can go through the total process, know what •
challenges at each stage
Know roughly how to handle them •
Generic entrepreneurship
competencies developed
How to ?nd an idea •
How to appraise an idea •
How to see problems as opportunities •
To identify the key people to be in?uenced in •
any development
Know how to build the know who •
Know how to learn from relationships •
Know how to assess business development •
needs
Know where to look for answers •
Emotional self awareness, manage, read •
emotions, handle relationships
To constantly see yourself and the business •
through the eyes of stakeholders and
particularly customers
Figure 1 NCGE Outcomes Framework for Entrepreneurship Education (by Gibb, 1996)
In summary, there is a growing acceptance of the need to provide entrepreneurship
education within the HEIs in Ireland; that there is increasing demand for entrepreneurship
education within non-business disciplines within the HEIs in Ireland; and that a framework
for delivering excellence in entrepreneurship education within the HEIs in Ireland is vital
for the future.
The following section, Section 2, outlines the methodology used to conduct this research.
In Section 3, the ?ndings of in-depth investigations into the different viewpoints on the
provision of entrepreneurship education within the HEIs in Ireland are reported. The
infrastructure, strategy and culture at Institutional level are described where the opinions
of Presidents of Institutions, Heads of non-business Departments, Business School
academics and Industrial Liaison Managers are presented. Current provision is examined
and includes the provision of entrepreneurship education within non-business disciplines.
Undergraduate and postgraduate views are taken into consideration to highlight the
demand and perception of the current provision of entrepreneurship education within
HE in Ireland. A signi?cant added value component of this research is the enterprise
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perspective of entrepreneurship education. The ?ndings from surveys conducted with
these enterprises conclude the ?ndings section. In Section 4, some re?ections are
presented on the international good practice exemplars studied as part of this research.
These case examples explored the cultural environment, Institutional support for, and
change required to enable good practice in entrepreneurship education. Section 4 also
contains a general discussion on the appropriate delivery models for entrepreneurship
education. In the concluding sections (5-6) conclusions are drawn from the research study
(Section 5) and recommendations (Section 6) are made on embedding entrepreneurship
education within the HEIs in Ireland. In Section 7 there is guidance on future research
directions in the area of entrepreneurship education, herein the implications for future
research might provide useful insights for enterprise educators in working collaboratively
within HE.
Section 2
Methodology
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Section 2
Methodology
2.1 Aims and Objectives
The aim of the ACE Initiative is to ‘Create the Entrepreneurial Graduate’. This Initiative
recognises that all students should be given the opportunity to engage in entrepreneurial
learning within HE. The ACE Initiative therefore seeks to explore and provide innovative
approaches to entrepreneurship education that can be applied in diverse disciplines
within the HEIs in Ireland.
The objectives of the ACE Research project are:
To examine current provision of entrepreneurship education within the HEIs •
in Ireland.
To assess the needs of entrepreneurship education from the various •
stakeholder perspectives.
To assess the effectiveness of support infrastructures within the HEIs •
in facilitating the exploitation of commercialisation opportunities by
postgraduate students.
To explore international models of good practice that could inform practice •
within the HEIs in Ireland.
To develop an understanding of the culture within the HEIs and its impact on •
entrepreneurship education.
The key questions addressed within this report include:
Are the HEIs in Ireland currently providing entrepreneurship education that •
not only informs students about enterprise but equips them for enterprise?
What is required from entrepreneurship education today and how can this •
be delivered?
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What infrastructural, organisational and cultural changes may be required to •
facilitate embedding new approaches to entrepreneurship education within
HEIs across all departments?
2.2 Methodological Approach
There are three broad steps in this research investigation:
Research at Institutional level •
Evidence from practitioners, the business perspective •
Case-based evidence from international good practice exemplars •
The research began by developing an in-depth picture or case-study of entrepreneurship
education delivery, demand and prioritisation within each Partner Institution. Analyses
across the supply and demand sides of entrepreneurship education facilitated robust
within case and across case analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989), which will continue throughout
the pilot-testing phase to facilitate theory development. This method was adopted as
it provided Partner Institutions with a more complete understanding of the dynamics
present within their own Institutional settings to enable benchmarking against peers
and international best practice and, ultimately, in an action research methodology to be
employed in the second phase of the ACE Initiative, to enable the development of pilot
initiatives tailored for the particular cultural context of each Institution so as to maximise
effectiveness and likelihood of success. Different levels of analysis were employed within
and across studies (Yin, 1984) using the combination of qualitative and quantitative data
collated (Eisenhardt and Bourgeois, 1988).
The partner organisations represent HEIs of both Institutes of Technology and University
status. They were not randomly sampled but were selected for participation in the ACE
Initiative due to their desire to widen current entrepreneurship education offerings outside
the business school, with the ultimate aims of developing entrepreneurial mindsets, skills
and behaviours amongst students and increasing the likelihood of student start-ups by
entrepreneurial graduates.
Multiple researchers at each Institution were involved in conducting, analysing and
presenting this research. The use of multiple researchers ensured greater objectivity.
This assisted (a) in avoiding theoretical bias and (b) in converging towards novel
observations thereby allowing for new interpretations and for richness of the data
(see Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Note the primary research at Institutional level involved
qualitative interviews with a range of HEI staff from the Institutions (see Appendix III) and
quantitative and qualitative surveys of undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts.
Whilst the individual case-study analysis undertaken for each partner Institution is
valuable in its own right, it is the collation and cross-referencing of this data that insights
into the provision of entrepreneurship education within non-business in Ireland. With
these results from an exploratory study into student and staff supports, organisational
culture and the potential methods for implementing entrepreneurship education as
derived from international good practice becoming evident. This report therefore,
mainly outlines the collated research ?ndings to provide the reader with an overview of
current entrepreneurship education practice in the higher education in Ireland, examples
of international good practice, and recommendations as to the way forward in creating
entrepreneurial graduates, regardless of their discipline of study.
Enterprises were surveyed to take into consideration the needs of ‘the entrepreneurial
graduate’ from the perspective of the prospective employer, businessperson or social
entrepreneur. These enterprises were located in the regions where the ?ve ACE partner
HEIs were located. The research subjects were derived from a range of organisational
types and were not necessarily involved with the curriculum development efforts of the
HEIs or with entrepreneurship education.
The research compared what was considered as three international good practice
exemplars of entrepreneurship education – one in Northern Ireland, one in Europe and
one in the UK. The evidence for the three cases was collated from a qualitative, semi-
structured interviewing document designed for this research study and used during the
site visits to the three good practice exemplars.
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The following methodological framework was employed for this study:
Step One
Interviews with four distinct groups from each of the participating HEIs •
including:
President or nominee •
Head of Department (non-business) •
Business School academic •
Industrial Liaison Manager or Technology Transfer Of?cer •
Interviewers were selected from each of the ACE Initiative Partner Institutions. A
comprehensive interview schedule, based on surveys used in the HE in a European
research study, (European Commission 2008b) was designed to collect quantitative and
qualitative data on the following key areas:
Teaching and Learning •
Resources •
Strategy, Policies, Culture •
Infrastructure •
Multi-disciplinary Approaches •
Development •
Design and Co-ordination of Entrepreneurship Education for Non- •
Business Disciplines
Innovation, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation •
The surveys differed slightly for each group but, by using the same core questions, offered
comparative analysis and triangulation opportunities. Business school academics were
asked most questions (58) with a focus on current delivery, development, the existence
of a multi-disciplinary approach for delivery to non-business students and the inclusion
of technology entrepreneurship and commercialisation. Heads of Department of non-
business schools, corresponding to the discipline in which undergraduate students were
surveyed at the same Institution, were also interviewed. Their responses to thirty questions
were cross-referenced with responses of business academics in relation to teaching, and
with those of Presidents and Industrial Liaison/Technology Transfer Of?cers (ILO/TTOs) in
relation to policy and management issues.
Presidents were asked thirty questions focusing on infrastructure, strategy, culture and
development; whilst, TTO/ILOs were asked thirty-eight questions with a heavier weighting
on the Innovation, Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation section. Whilst
comparative analysis was undertaken by sub-group, ?ndings are primarily reported within
this document by key ?ndings topic in order to address the research questions outlined in
Section 2.1 i.e. Teaching and Learning, Institutional Infrastructure, Strategy and Culture.
First Year, non-business undergraduate student survey – a paper based •
questionnaire administered to students within the classroom environment by a
project researcher.
Within each Partner Institution, certain non-business subjects/disciplines were targeted as
a means of providing an exploratory insight into the attitudes towards entrepreneurship
education amongst non-business students, and also, to provide an indication as to the level
of their entrepreneurial interest. The subject areas were surveyed as shown in Table 1.
The survey contained fourteen questions categorised under entrepreneurial aptitude;
interest in self-employment; in?uences on entrepreneurial interest; motivations for wanting
to start a business; opinion on embedding entrepreneurship in non-business discipline;
entrepreneurship skills development and current provision within the HEIs.

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Table 1 Undergraduate Survey Response Rates
Institution Subject/Discipline
Number of
Undergraduate
Responses
Dundalk Institute of Technology Engineering 147
Institute of Technology Sligo
Early Childhood Care
and Education
53
Institute of Technology
Blanchardstown
Computing/Computer
Engineering
48
Cork Institute of Technology Biomedical Engineering 15
NUI Galway Various Engineering 35
Total 298
Note that as part of the longitudinal studies associated with the ACE Initiative this same
cohort will be surveyed during each subsequent year of study to map attitudinal change
towards entrepreneurship.
Postgraduate Survey – administered in paper-based format and electronic •
format.
Forty-four postgraduate students enrolled on taught Masters and higher research
degrees across all subject disciplines in Partner Institutions were surveyed. Whilst this
represents less than one percent of the postgraduate student population across Partner
Institutions, this exploratory qualitative study sought to identify postgraduate experiences
and issues.
The postgraduate surveys contained twenty seven questions across various topics
including the nature of research being undertaken; the potential for exploitation/
commercialisation; awareness and understanding of IP and technology transfer policies
within their Institution; awareness and understanding of commercialisation supports
within their Institution (e.g. campus-incubation facilities); their experience, if any, of
enterprise development/entrepreneurship education and training delivery; Institutional
recognition of entrepreneurial endeavour and their interest in commercialisation.
Step Two
Enterprise Survey – administered electronically to a convenience sample of key •
personnel across a range of organisational types – as de?ned by employee
numbers, turnover, budget and industry sector.
The enterprise surveys sought to explore the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and
capabilities required of graduates in the labour market. The surveys were administered to
33 enterprises/organisations in electronic format to enhance response rates. The surveys
contained 19 open and closed questions pertaining to the pro?le of the organisation;
opinion on the key entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and competencies required of
graduates in marketplace; the anticipated bene?ts of entrepreneurial employees; the
methods for fostering entrepreneurial skills; and the importance of enterprise linkages
in delivering entrepreneurship education.
Step Three
International exemplar survey – site visits and semi-structured interviewing. •
The ‘Survey of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education in Europe’ (European Commission
2008b) identi?ed 45 exemplars. For the purposes of this investigation, this survey was
adopted and the exemplars were shortlisted on the basis of the extent of entrepreneurial
activity at different levels and across different disciplines and willingness to support the
ACE Initiative. The three good practice exemplars include the Northern Ireland Centre
for Entrepreneurship (NICENT) a joint partnership between the University of Ulster and
Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland; the University of Satakunta, Finland (a
member of the FINPIN – network of polytechnics and universities of applied science) and
the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) in the UK.
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To inform this research, a standard analytical framework was employed during each site
visit to establish:
The nature, extent and development of enterprise education and activity •
within the Institute. While this sets the context, it also helps to give an
understanding of the mechanisms used to introduce entrepreneurship
education to non-business disciplines.
The nature and level of academic engagement. •
Their methods of measuring success of their entrepreneurship education •
programmes.
Their approaches to delivering entrepreneurship education and the extra- •
curricular activities which support academic learning on entrepreneurship
programmes.
The organisational and cultural in?uences and how they embed •
entrepreneurship in the curriculum elements.
In addition, US models of entrepreneurship education delivery were conceptually
examined to identify the key delivery models employed in delivering entrepreneurship
education across curricula. Different approaches and the implementation of these
different models within the UK context were then explored to aid an assessment of the
transferability of different approaches and models within the Irish context.
Expert Focus Groups
When the ?eldwork was completed, indicative results were presented to experts at two
fora as follows:
EduPROF Conference, 4-5 •
th
February 2009, The Hague.
Entrepreneurship Education Conference, 17 •
th
February, 2009, Dublin Castle.
Note the research ?ndings were also presented to the Advisory Committee to the ACE
Initiative (see Appendix I). These fora encouraged academics, researchers, policy makers
and the business community to (a) provide constructive feedback on the research ?ndings
and (b) to inform the development phase of the ACE Initiative which, on the basis of
the research, aims to develop and pilot test entrepreneurship education programmes in
non-business disciplines within the ?ve Partner Institutions at both undergraduate and
postgraduate level.
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Section 3
Findings
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Section 3
Findings
This research study explored the demand-side perspective in relation to entrepreneurship
education for students in higher education in Ireland. This involved an exploration of
demand for entrepreneurship education from non-business undergraduates and
postgraduates and an analysis of the requirements of entrepreneurship education from
the perspectives of both students and industry. The supply-side of entrepreneurship
education was also examined to explore current delivery and approaches, the commitment
to entrepreneurship within Institutions, and an evaluation of the organisational structures
and cultures at interplay that would promote or hamper progress. This section of the
report sets out the ?ndings from each aspect of the primary research undertaken,
beginning with the supply-side:
3.1 Institutional Infrastructure, Strategy and Culture Supply-side Analysis
3.2 Entrepreneurship Education Survey
2

3.3 Undergraduate survey
3.4 Postgraduate survey Demand-Side Analysis
3.5 Enterprise Survey
3.1 Institutional Infrastructure, Strategy and Culture
The European Commission for Enterprise and Industry Directorate General produced a
report entitled ‘Entrepreneurship in Higher Education, especially in non-business studies’
in 2008. This report highlights key issues, identi?es existing challenges and proposes
recommendations to multiple stakeholders including policymakers, senior management
within Institutions, educators and staff responsible for enterprise promotion within
2

Includes Business School academic and Non-Business Head of Department responses in relation to current
practices and planned provision to provide data on practices across disciplines.
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the higher education system. This report outlines research undertaken to inform the
Irish context in relation to how these recommendations could be implemented and
the necessary changes and requirements to facilitate effective action. Therefore, the
Presidents of each Institution (or their nominated representatives) were interviewed, in
addition to Heads of Department (non-Business) and the Technology Transfer/ Industrial
Liaison Of?cers within each organisation who are responsible for the enterprise creation
and economic development remit of the organisations. In addition, business school
academics were surveyed to ascertain delivery practices and perceptions at the staff-
student, teaching and learning interface.
To ascertain the signi?cance attributed to entrepreneurship within each individual HEI
policy environment, Presidents were asked if entrepreneurship was embedded in the
Institution’s written Mission Statement. Whilst only 42% of Presidents stated that
their Institutional Mission Statements incorporated entrepreneurship, 58% highlighted
that they had in place Institute-wide policies and plans to assist in the development of
entrepreneurial behaviours, skills, mindsets and experiences. Presidents identi?ed the
main overarching goals for entrepreneurship education in the HEIs in Ireland as being:
To foster entrepreneurial behaviours, skills and mindsets. •
To increase the number of graduate start-ups. •
To seek opportunities for commercially exploiting knowledge present at the •
Institution.
To inspire students towards an entrepreneurial career or life. •
The survey provided an insight into the typical Institutional infrastructure in place in
relation to delivering entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial activities within
the HEIs in Ireland. It was found that:
The majority of Institutions do not have a centre or a department for research •
in entrepreneurship (67%) and, of those that do, 75% have less than ?ve
full-time equivalent academic staff.
Sixty percent (60%) of Universities surveyed did not have a Professor of •
Entrepreneurship on their academic staff. It should be noted that Institutes
of Technology cannot appoint Professors as there are no Chairs within the
IoT system.
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the HEIs have business incubation facilities for •
more than 10 start-ups or spin-outs, with 50% having a Technology Transfer
or Industry Liaison Of?ce employing more than one person.
Only 6.3% reported having no infrastructure for incubation, technology •
transfer or industry liaison available.
Sixty-six percent (66%) of the HEIs generate income from entrepreneurial •
activities, mainly the generation of fees from seminars, training workshops
and advisory services.
While facilities evidently exist for incubation and technology transfer alongside the
research that is conducted in the area, there was no consistent academic focus for
entrepreneurship evident across Institutions.
This issue re-surfaced when Presidents were asked to outline the main barriers to
entrepreneurship education within their own Institutions. The key barriers reported,
ranked according to frequency, were considered to be:
No support from the Government/policy environment for entrepreneurship •
education improvement.
Entrepreneurship education is dependent upon the efforts of a single person •
or a few people.
Entrepreneurship education lacks strategic integration at Institutional level. •
At Institutional level, no recognition is given for excellence in entrepreneurship •
education.
Academics do not have time to engage in entrepreneurship education • .
Heads of Department of a non-business discipline also considered the main barrier to
entrepreneurship education delivery at their Institution resulted from the lack of a policy
drive; with similar frequency, they also indicated that the reliance on one, or a small
number of people, to deliver entrepreneurship education within the Institution was a
barrier. This was followed by a consensus that their academic staff did not have time to
engage in entrepreneurship education and an acknowledgement that they had limited
expertise in the area.
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Those staff with a remit for enterprise, commercialisation and technology transfer
within the HE sector i.e. Industrial Liaison or Technology Transfer Managers/Of?cers,
did not consider a lack of policy to be a key factor. This group considered the limited
expertise among academic staff to be the key barrier; this group also indicated that
entrepreneurship education tended to depend on the efforts of one or a small number
of individuals within Institutions; and more widely, staff did not have enough time to
engage in entrepreneurship education. This was compounded by the lack of recognition
given for excellence in entrepreneurship education at Institutional level.
Similarly business school academics perceived the key barrier identi?ed being the small
number of academics delivering and championing entrepreneurship education within
Institutions. Academics also highlighted the lack of strategic integration raised by
Presidents. This group also considered entrepreneurship education to have a lack of
academic credibility, which may explain the low numbers of staff involved or required to
teach in this area.
Whilst 67% of Institutions were reported by Presidents to be engaged in entrepreneurship
research, many did not engage in research in the ?eld of entrepreneurship education.
The purpose of the research being undertaken was varied; Presidents equally prioritised
two objectives: the desire to understand market trends and needs within the area of
entrepreneurship education and to further advance the ?eld through ‘high-end’,
academic research in the ?eld of entrepreneurship education. Other responses included
the development of an entrepreneurial culture on campus, identifying best practice
models to deliver entrepreneurship education across all courses and for benchmarking
purposes.
Institutions generally do not require staff to have actual entrepreneurial experience prior
to teaching entrepreneurship and there was no formal requirement on staff to engage
in training or coaching to improve their entrepreneurship teaching skills. When asked
to outline the key organisational and infrastructural changes required to facilitate the
implementation of entrepreneurship education across disciplines, Senior Management
considered the implementation of modularisation and semesterisation, in conjunction
with optional electives, as a potential means for progress. Some respondents recognised
a need to plan for the inclusion of entrepreneurship education within programmes at
an earlier stage.
A cause for concern is the disparity in ?ndings relating to the evaluation of
entrepreneurship education delivered within the sector. Whilst eighty-two percent
(82%) of business academics indicate that student evaluations of modules occur, 56%
of non-business Heads of Department report that student evaluation does not occur. Of
greater concern is the fact that no organisational procedures or evaluation mechanisms
are in place to assess if the entrepreneurial education offerings are meeting the medium
to long-term goals according to 91% of business school academics and 89% of Heads
of Department.
The main challenges inherent in the current system relate to the dif?culties in
persuading all Departments of the relevance of entrepreneurship across disciplines;
this may necessitate discussions to achieve consensus on the purpose and aims of
entrepreneurship education, which is perhaps why respondents widely acknowledged
that a mindset and cultural change would be required to effect change. In addition,
there are resource constraints. Within the University sector, it was acknowledged that
greater value is placed on academic research than academic entrepreneurship and that
it may be more dif?cult to persuade faculty to engage in embedding entrepreneurship
education rather than concentrating on academic research which has typically provided
a route to promotion.
When asked about the challenges facing entrepreneurial graduates, Presidents outlined
the current economic climate, access to ?nance, access to business networks and relevant
contacts and con?dence as key dif?culties likely to be encountered. However, most
respondents were able to identify some successful role models from their Institutions
who had started new businesses and had been successful.

It became evident throughout the research process that an inherent tension often exists
within Institutions as business schools consider entrepreneurship education to fall within
their remit. This has, on occasion, led to a perception amongst some academics from non-
business backgrounds that they are not considered to possess similar or relevant expertise.
A key requirement identi?ed by various respondent groups, was the requirement for
Heads of Department to collaborate locally to facilitate widespread implementation of
high quality entrepreneurship education delivery. In addition, the importance of actively
engaging the commercialisation and enterprise support functions within Institutions
was acknowledged in order to ensure relevant, real-world linkages within the teaching
process. A smaller number of respondents identi?ed the need to involve researchers
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within the process which would ensure that current good practice consistently informed
delivery and assisted students in preparing for the entrepreneurship process.

At 75% of Institutions surveyed, all students could not access entrepreneurship education
as part of their course according to non-business Heads of Department. It would
appear that despite a reportedly high level of support at Senior Management level for
entrepreneurship, dif?culties remain in translating policies into deliverable actions due to
barriers operating at different levels including organisational structures, timetabling and
education delivery formats, lack of developmental resources and limited use of multi-
disciplinary approaches.
3.2 Entrepreneurship Education Survey
3.2.1 Current Provision
Thirteen Heads of (non-business) Departments and twelve business school academics
participated in this research, outlining current entrepreneurship education delivery and
the level of integration (or not) across curricula. For the most part, entrepreneurship
modules tend to be taught as specialised courses and are not integrated across
curriculum in non-business disciplines. Within business schools, whilst many have
modules and programmes available to students, only two Institutions report integrating
entrepreneurship across the entire business school.
Figure 2 Overall disciplines which offer In-Curricular Entrepreneurship Courses
As shown in Figure 2, the business studies discipline is the largest cohort exposed
to entrepreneurship education within the curriculum, followed by science and
technology disciplines. Most notably, Public Services programmes do not have access to
entrepreneurship education at all.
As outlined earlier in this document there is a difference between educating about
entrepreneurship and educating for entrepreneurship. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of
business academics in this survey considered the entrepreneurship education offerings
within their Institution offered a combination of both. Entrepreneurship courses can
also have different focal points with respect to the entrepreneurial process. Seventy-?ve
(75%) of respondents however, reported that current offerings provide students with
a broad view of the entire entrepreneurial process from the Pre-start (idea generation,
assessment and experimentation) phase, through the start-up phase (assembling
resources, identi?cation of customers, problem solving) to the growth phase (formalising
procedures, structures, acquiring resources to sustain and promote growth, enlarge
market opportunity). However 50% of respondents acknowledged a slightly greater
emphasis on the start-up phase.
Respondents were then asked to outline the main methods and approaches employed
in delivering entrepreneurship education; the results show that lecturing is still the
dominant method.
Figure 3 Main Teaching Methodologies Used
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Whilst there is a variety of activity currently undertaken nationally, as illustrated in
Table 2, there is unfortunately no overall standard or mechanism where the learning
outcomes of each type of activity can be captured, adapted at an Institutional level and
freely disseminated throughout the sector.
Table 2 Types and Examples of Supporting Activities
Type of Activity Example of Activities
In-Curricular
Guest speakers and lecturers •
Academic modules or partial modules •
In-curricular project work with or without a •
multidisciplinary focus
Industry placement •
Business game (i.e. new venture simulation) •
Extra Curricular
Entrepreneurs Society or Forum •
Commercialisation and Mentoring Programmes •
Enterprise Week and Business Week •
Sabbatical exchange for academics •
Workshops and Blue Sky Days •
Business Plan and
Competition Based
Enterprise Ireland Competition •
Newstalk Student Competition •
Involvement of Irish Marketing Institute •
AIB Innovation Fund •
General exhibitions, and local initiatives •
The majority of Institutions, according to 60% of business school academics, undertake
in-house development of the entrepreneurship curriculum and teaching methods with
64% reporting that there is no importation of teaching methods from other HEIs and
73% report no formalised exchange in good practice of entrepreneurship education
at a national level. Eighty-two percent (82%) of business school academics reported
that their HEI did not currently engage in international good practice exchanges of
entrepreneurship education.
This study also highlighted a poor funding environment for curriculum development
within the HEIs in the area of entrepreneurship education. Ninety-one percent (91%)
of non-business Heads of Department surveyed do not have access to a dedicated fund
for delivering entrepreneurship curricula. Forty-six percent (46%) of business academics
and Heads of non-business departments however, reported that their Institution did have
formalised cross-disciplinary structures in place to enable collaboration to develop new
entrepreneurship education offerings. This will hopefully go some way to overcoming the
lack of dedicated Technology Entrepreneurship programmes available in HEIs, as reported
by 82% of respondents.
3.2.2 Entrepreneurship Education for Non-Business Disciplines
Respondents indicated that approximately half of all entrepreneurship education is delivered
directly from, or within, the business school; the remainder is delivered by both business
and non-business schools. When developing entrepreneurship education offerings for non-
business students, 70% of business school academics said this was done in conjunction
with academics from the relevant discipline, indicating informal cross-disciplinary liaison.
It must be remembered however that entrepreneurship education is only being offered to
non-business students in 25% of the HEIs surveyed. These ?ndings tend to suggest that
the incorporation of entrepreneurship education into non-business programmes is still in its
infancy in Ireland.
The business school academics responsible for delivering entrepreneurship education and the
Head of a non-Business Department were then asked what they considered to be the main
organisational and structural barriers to be overcome and changes required, to facilitate the
implementation of entrepreneurship education across disciplines. They highlighted:
The rigidity of programmatic structures. •
Lack of co-ordination of such programmes for academic centres. •
Need to change the mindset of academics. •
Need to communicate with potential students. •
Lack of staff incentives. •
The impact of modularisation and semesterisation. •
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Business School academics and Heads of non-business Departments, in contrast to
Presidents, considered modularisation and semesterisation as potential challenges to the
success of implementing entrepreneurship education.
3.3 Undergraduate Survey
In total, 298 students completed the undergraduate survey, administered by project
team members within Partner Institutions. Higher Education Authority statistics indicate
that approximately 70% of students enrol on non-Business school courses in the HEIs
in Ireland. Based on the most recently available statistics for 2007/08, we estimate
that this student survey sampled less than 1% of the total population of non-business
undergraduates. However, as outlined in the methodology section, this survey was
undertaken as part of the process of developing case-studies of each participating
Institution to facilitate within case, and across case, data comparison. The 298 responses
are disaggregated by Partner Institution in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Breakdown of Undergraduate Student responses by Partner Institution
Data analysis was undertaken on an Institutional level and collated to provide an overall
indication for the ?rst year undergraduate students surveyed. As can be appreciated
throughout the remainder of this section, the collated responses provide a good indication
of responses within each Partner Institution. The high proportion of respondents within
one Institution did not therefore skew overall results, and the summary ?ndings contained
herein, are therefore considered representative. Interesting ?ndings at an Institutional
level are highlighted within the overall data set throughout.
3.3.1 Findings
Students were asked to rank a number of attitudinal statements on a Likert scale ranging
from 1 to 5 where 1 was most signi?cant. The collated responses are displayed in Table
3 following.
Table 3 Ranked Preferences of Entire Student Sample
Statement
Average
Rating
I prefer a steady income stream 1.79
I want to be my own boss 1.81
I like to take risks 2.00
I continually come up with new ideas 2.13
I prefer to follow others lead 2.85
There was some variation amongst these results across Partner Institutions. Students
in DkIT, CIT, and ITB were keen to be their own boss, and this desire slightly outranked
their secondary desire for a steady income stream. The ITS student sample indicated a
stronger preference for a steady income stream, with their secondary preference being
the desire to be their own boss. Interestingly students at NUI Galway most agreed with
the statement that they continually came up with new ideas; their secondary preference
was the desire to have a steady income stream. Hence, the desire for a steady income
stream, which was ranked highly across all student groups in Partner Institutions, was
ranked ?rst in the total sample.
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Table 3a Dundalk Institute of Technology
Statement
Average
Rating
I want to be my own boss 1.71
I prefer a steady income stream 1.83
I like to take risks 1.92
I continually come up with new ideas 2.15
I prefer to follow others lead 2.87
Table 3b IT Sligo IT Cork
Statement
Average
Rating
Statement
Average
Rating
I prefer a steady income
stream
1.69
I want to be my own
boss
1.80
I want to be my own
boss
2.00
I prefer a steady
income stream
1.86
I like to take risks 2.18
I continually come up
with new ideas
1.93
I continually come up
with new ideas
2.39 I like to take risks 2.00
I prefer to follow others
lead
2.54
I prefer to follow
others lead
3.07
Table 3c IT Blanchardstown NUI Galway
Statement
Average
Rating
Statement
Average
Rating
I want to be my own boss 1.71
I continually come up with
new ideas
1.79
I prefer a steady income
stream
1.83
I prefer a steady income
stream
1.81
I continually come up with
new ideas
2.02 I like to take risks 1.87
I like to take risks 2.07 I want to be my own boss 1.9
I prefer to follow others lead 2.93 I prefer to follow others lead 2.97
Students were then asked to indicate their interest in starting their own business at some
point in the future. On average, seventy-eight percent (78%) of students surveyed expressed
an interest in starting their own business in the future. Figure 5 provides a breakdown of
responses across Partner Institutions and shows the ‘?t’ of the collated result.
Figure 5 Undergraduate Interest in Starting a business by Partner Institution
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Analysis of the data by Partner Institution shows that DkIT students were most interested
in starting their own business at some point in the future, with students in IT Sligo being
least interested in new venture creation at the time of the survey.
It must be noted however that the DKIT students were predominantly male (99.98%)
engineering students whereas the IT Sligo students surveyed were entirely female
undertaking Early Childhood Care and Education. The extant literature outlines a gender
differential in relation to entrepreneurial activity and approach to risk which may explain
this difference (Allen et al., 2008; Carter, Anderson and Shaw, 2001), however, it could
also stem from a combination of gender and the entrepreneurial opportunities perceived
in their ?eld of study. It would seem from the survey ?ndings that there is certainly
a gender differential in relation to desire to secure a steady income stream and the
willingness to become self-employed. There does not however appear to be a strong
geographical in?uence on entrepreneurial interest.
The data would suggest that the collated responses represent a good ?t for responses
obtained from each individual site and may, therefore, be considered to be suitably
representative of the ?rst-year undergraduate population in non-business disciplines
across the HEIs.
Figure 6 In?uences on Students’ Entrepreneurial Interest
It is apparent from the undergraduate survey that those students interested in starting
their own business at some point the future, are most signi?cantly in?uenced by
family members who have started a business and high pro?le entrepreneurs, covered
predominantly in the media and educational case studies. Figure 7 provides a breakdown
of responses across Partner Institutions.
Figure 7 Key In?uences on Undergraduates’ Entrepreneurial Interest by Partner Institution
Respondents were then asked to identify their motivations, for wanting to start their
own business in the future. In order to identify the range of motivating factors at
interplay, respondents were not asked to rank their responses but could freely identify as
many motivational factors as applied. The following pie-chart highlights responses from
the entire student sample.
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Figure 8 Undergraduate Students’ Entrepreneurial Motivation
There was some slight variation within Partner Institutions to this question; for example,
students in IT Blanchardstown were most motivated by being their own boss, whilst
Cork IT students sought the ?exibility of working hours offered. However, students in
these Institutions responded in similar proportions to the majority of students across the
remaining Partner sites, that a key motivational factor was to obtain wealth and success
(see Table 4 below). Given the reported in?uence of high-pro?le entrepreneurs (who
tend to be the most successful entrepreneurs in terms of wealth creation e.g. Richard
Branson, Bill Gates), it would seem that the media has created a positive image of
entrepreneurs but, on a cautionary note, may also have created unrealistic expectations
of new venture creation amongst young people.
Table 4 Entrepreneurial Motivations
Motivation for wanting to be
an Entrepreneur
DkIT ITS ITB CIT NUIG Overall
Be my own boss 55 46 61 46 52 54
Independence from employer 18 23 37 23 48 26
To obtain wealth and success 57 55 55 54 59 56
Identi?cation of a new business
opportunity
17 9 29 0 24
18
Desire to innovate technologically 18 0 40 31 52 23
To contribute to job creation 15 32 26 15 24 19
Flexibility of Working Hours
Offered
26 46 34 62 41
32
Other (please specify) 4 9 5 0 3 4
Students were asked to rank in order the characteristics they considered most important
for an entrepreneur to possess. The consensus was that an entrepreneur needed to be:
Self-con?dent •
Determined •
Hard working/energetic •
A good communicator •
Creative/Innovative •
Students were asked if they thought entrepreneurship/enterprise development education
should be an important element of their course. Overall 72% of ?rst-year, non-
business undergraduate students considered that entrepreneurship education should be
incorporated within their programme of study.
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Table 5 Undergraduate Opinion on Inclusion of Entrepreneurship Education within Curriculum
Should entrepreneurship/
enterprise development be
an important part of your
course?
DkIT ITS ITB CIT NUIG Overall
Yes 81 75 54 71 71 72
No 19 25 46 29 29 28
Undergraduate students were then asked to identify the skills and knowledge areas they
considered important to be included in an entrepreneurship education programme. The
key skills and areas identi?ed were, in rank order:
Creativity and Innovation •
Communication Skills •
Opportunity Identi?cation •
Developing a Business plan •
Assessing the risks/bene?ts of self-employment •
Selling an Idea and Finding Customers •
The skills and knowledge valued least by ?rst-year undergraduates were:
Human Resource Management •
Dealing with Business Failure •
Personal development •
The role of Intrapreneurship •
Regulatory/Legal requirements. •
The responses would tend to suggest a high degree of optimism amongst the student
grouping in relation to the potential success of a new venture. The survey also sought to
assess student awareness of current networking supports and initiatives, on campus, for
students interested in entrepreneurship. The responses re?ected a low level of awareness
of such initiatives and supports as evidenced in Table 6.
Table 6 Undergraduate Awareness of On-Campus Networking Supports
Are there any
Networking
opportunities provided
on campus for students
interested in starting a
business?
DkIT ITS ITB CIT NUIG
Overall
%
Yes 10 4 6 0 3 7
No 15 7 6 14 18 13
Unsure 75 89 88 86 79 80
Students were then asked if, in their opinion, their Institution was suf?ciently engaged
in raising student awareness of entrepreneurship as a potential career option. There
was some variation in the extent of responses across different Institutions (see Table 7),
which is perhaps to be expected given different levels of activity undertaken at each site,
however, the majority of students in all sites did not think their Institution suf?ciently
promoted entrepreneurship as a career option.
Table 7 Promoting Entrepreneurship as a Career Option
Does your College
do enough to
create awareness of
entrepreneurship as
a potential career
option?
DkIT ITS ITB CIT NUIG
Overall
%
Yes 44 28 35 14 18 36
No 56 72 65 86 82 64
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These ?ndings suggest that, in the main, the HEIs in Ireland must promote entrepreneurship
as a career option and provide entrepreneurship experiences to undergraduates, if the
goal of creating the entrepreneurial graduate is to be achieved.
3.4 Postgraduate Survey Findings
As early as 2003, Forfás, advocated that postgraduate and doctoral training programmes
in Ireland should include courses on research management/administration, technology
transfer and entrepreneurship, as well as exposure to the processes involved in
making “mind-shift” required in the transition from laboratory research to commercial
developments that take advantage of market opportunities (Downey, 2003). This
research study surveyed 44 postgraduate students, 34 of which were from non-business
disciplines. The postgraduates were asked 27 questions to ascertain general interest
surrounding, and potential for, knowledge transfer from their research. More speci?cally,
non-business students were questioned about the likelihood that they would engage in
either commercialisation of research or new venture creation within campus-incubation
facilities, to explore the entrepreneurship education and training they received and to
establish the interplay of incentives, supports and/or barriers to commercialisation and
entrepreneurship under current HEI structures.
The postgraduate students were surveyed across the ?ve HEI partners in the ACE
Initiative, with students undertaking both taught and research programmes, as listed
in Table 8.
Table 8 Participating HEIs for Postgraduate Survey
Participating Institution Response Frequency (%)
Dundalk IT 23%
IT Sligo 14%
Blanchardstown IT 25%
Cork IT 20%
NUI Galway 18%
Forty-seven percent (47%) of the entire group of students reported a strong desire to
engage in knowledge transfer and ?nd an application for their work in society generally;
a similar proportion (46%) of the overall group of respondents indicated they were
actively developing ideas for commercialisation.
When the subsample of non-business postgraduates was analysed, it was apparent that
non-business, postgraduate students comprised the majority of students with a strong
interest in engaging in knowledge transfer and commercialisation. Given however, that
68% of postgraduate students from non-business disciplines saw opportunities for the
commercial exploitation of their research, it is perhaps a cause for concern that only
42% of this group have a strong desire to actually commercialise their work.
This survey revealed that 59% of postgraduates had no knowledge of their Institution’s
IP policy. It was reported that 79% of respondents either had no knowledge (50%) or
were only vaguely familiar (29%) with enterprise development and commercialisation
supports within their Institution. Seventy-three percent of this group had received no
training or advice in relation to intellectual property or its implications for their research;
a further 9% identi?ed training provision in relation to copyright infringement and
plagiarism only.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of the group of non-business postgraduate students had
received no training in relation to developing a business plan or preparing a funding
application. Only two students had received any information in relation to the technology
transfer process within their Institution. The issue of lack of student awareness must be
overcome, possibly through communication to students about the supports available and
their potential applicability to their own research via a formal induction programme.
The academic literature highlights the importance and bene?ts of networking throughout
the entrepreneurial process (Chell and Baines, 2000); postgraduate students were
therefore questioned about their interest in networking with different groups and the
extent to which their HEI facilitated such networking. This revealed that:
Only 14% of Institutions offer postgraduate students formal engagement •
opportunities with Enterprise Ireland.
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The HEIs do not tend to seek to facilitate linkages between postgraduate •
students and potential customers for their research outputs but were more
likely to facilitate linkages with potential suppliers (4% as opposed to 12%).
Legal advice is rarely provided to students (only in 2 reported cases). •
Whilst it might be expected that the HEIs would provide linkages between •
postgraduate students and other researchers in their ?eld, this was only
reported in 19% of cases.
In addition, 34% of non-business, postgraduate students indicated a strong interest
in working within multidisciplinary teams to assist them with commercialising their
research e.g. working with MBA or other business school students. This would not
appear to be a common feature within the HEIs in Ireland; however, some enterprise
competitions and activities within some Institutions do facilitate multi-disciplinary teams
for the purposes of the competitions or activities which may facilitate this assistance on
an informal basis.
A key barrier to successful commercialisation identi?ed by eighty-two percent of students
(82%) was lack of ?nance. Given the current recessionary climate, it is likely that access
to ?nance will be a more signi?cant barrier than for previous cadres of students.
It would appear that currently the HEIs in Ireland are not encouraging the exploitation
of research with commercial potential, nor are they equipping postgraduates with the
skills, knowledge, capabilities and contacts to facilitate entrepreneurial graduates in
commercialising their work or engage in the new venture creation process. The ?ndings of
this study support existing research ?ndings that poor dissemination and understanding
of IP policy by postgraduate student researchers is a barrier to commercialisation
(Freeman and Barron, 2007); however access to ?nance may prove a greater challenge
in the current climate.
Thirty percent (30%) of non-business, postgraduates surveyed in this study reported
being interested in starting their own business at some point later in their career, whilst
39% are interested in setting up their own business through their college infrastructure.
Given the reported lack of student enquiries and start-ups within campus incubators,
it would appear that lack of communication and visibility of entrepreneurial supports,
compounded by a lack of entrepreneurial education and training, is sti?ing potentially
entrepreneurial graduates in Ireland.
3.5 The Enterprise Survey
As part of the study, 33 enterprises were surveyed to provide indicative data as to
expectations of graduates and how academic-enterprise linkages could be bene?cially
developed. The enterprises surveyed came from the following broad industry areas:
Manufacturing 24%
Service 42%
Knowledge-intensive industries (e.g. high-tech) 28%
Social enterprises 6%
The enterprises ranged in size from one-person through to organisations with 5,000
employees. Respondents were asked to rank the skills required by graduates in order to
develop their business; the three highest ranked skills were:
Communication skills •
Innovative and creative thinking •
Problem solving skills •
Interestingly, comparing these responses with the undergraduate survey ?ndings (section
3.3.1) shows that students seem to be quite aware of the skills required and valued in
the marketplace; both students and entrepreneurs considered communication skills and
innovation and creativity as being the two most signi?cant skills and abilities.
The skills and attributes ranked most lowly by respondents were team-working and
risk-taking. Respondents were also asked to evaluate ways in which they considered
that enterprise could engage with HE providers in order to promote the entrepreneurial
development of students. The most highly ranked responses were:
Real-life projects •
Venture simulation/mini-company experiences •
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Student work placements •
Guest lectures •
Company visits. •
This tends to suggest that current entrepreneurs value experiential learning that would
enable the student to experience the entrepreneurial process; respondents were least
inclined to get involved to provide case-study material. Whilst this may be due to concerns
surrounding the release of sensitive information, this is a response which should be
further explored as it may re?ect a lower regard for case-study teaching, which has been
shown to be the second most widely-used approach in entrepreneurship teaching in
Ireland. It must be remembered however, that case studies can also serve the purpose of
providing identi?able role-models to students.
Section 4
International
Good Practice
Exemplars
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Section 4
International Good Practice Exemplars
The recent ‘Survey of Entrepreneurship in Higher Education in Europe’ by the European
Commission 2008b identi?ed forty–?ve examples of good practice in entrepreneurship
education within Europe. These ‘good practice’ cases were examined and a shortlist
compiled, based on factors such as: extent of entrepreneurial activity at different levels
and across different disciplines; willingness of exemplars to host a site visit by members
of the research team and associated ?nancial costs. Site visits were then undertaken to
three of these European good practice programmes; those being:
4.1 Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship (NICENT)
4.2 University of Satakunta, Finland (Member of the FINPIN Network)
4.3 National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship, UK (NCGE)
To inform this research, a standard analytical framework was employed during each site
visit, to establish:
The nature, extent and development of enterprise education and activity •
within the institute.
The approaches and models employed to embed entrepreneurship education •
within non-business disciplines and identi?cation of the organisational and
cultural in?uencing factors.
The nature and level of academic engagement. •
The methods and resources used to deliver entrepreneurship education •
within these entrepreneurship programmes.
Monitoring and evaluation of their entrepreneurship education programmes •
to ‘measure success’.
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This section of the report outlines the activities undertaken at each good practice site.
In addition, Section 4.4 explores ‘Entrepreneurship Education Delivery Models’ from a
conceptual and implementation perspective. US models of entrepreneurship education
delivery are explored as are ?ndings from a UK study exploring the implementation
approaches employed within the HEIs. Given the analysis undertaken at an Institutional
level by the HEIs participating in this project, this research facilitates local benchmarking
and strategy development; in addition, this activity has informed evaluation of the
transferability of differing approaches within the HEIs in Ireland.
4.1 Northern Ireland Centre for Entrepreneurship (NICENT)
NICENT was established as a result of a competitive bid made to the Science Enterprise
Challenge (SEC) initiative in 1999. It is a partnership between the University of Ulster (UU)
and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Northern Ireland’s two Universities. The primary
aim of NICENT is to drive, promote and support entrepreneurship in Higher Education in
Northern Ireland. Two delegates from the Research Committee undertook site visits to
NICENT and met key NICENT staff at both Universities.
The NICENT Initiative was in?uenced by the US model of entrepreneurship education
which has generated many spin-outs. At both UU and QUB entrepreneurship teaching is
delivered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
4.1.1 Approaches to Delivering Entrepreneurship Education
The Partner Institutions agreed that entrepreneurship had to be migrated out of the
business school if entrepreneurship education was to be truly integrated and embedded
within course design in the various non-business disciplines. The NICENT Partner
Institutions adopted an appropriate institutional approach to embedding entrepreneurship
education which was somewhat dictated by organisational culture and structure. At
QUB and UU the focus has been one of engaging within the current curriculum and
where possible entrepreneurship was extended beyond a few timetabled sessions and
offered the students the opportunity to study full modules in entrepreneurship. At UU
(the lead partner), full online modules in entrepreneurship were also developed to cope
with demand across four geographically dispersed campuses.
At QUB, entrepreneurship is embedded within many undergraduate degree pathways but
usually not until the second year of study. Typically, one third of a module in a programme
is given over to entrepreneurship content or activities within the science, engineering and
technology disciplines. The focus has been to integrate entrepreneurship into existing
modules and to enhance staff capability for delivering entrepreneurship education – as a
means of ensuring multi-disciplinary staff are involved which should ensure longer term
sustainability for the entrepreneurship agenda. There is a need therefore to source staff
from non-business disciplines in delivering entrepreneurship within their discipline. The
NICENT Teaching Fellow at QUB initially delivers this part of the module for one year, as
a way of internally ‘training the trainer’, with the objective of handing over complete
control to the module lecturer in year two. The Centre, over time, sought to create a
critical mass of academics skilled in the delivery of entrepreneurship education which
reduces dependency on the NICENT resources.
Reducing dependency on NICENT resources was a key objective of the roll out of the work
of the Centre because the Centre received external funding (also from Invest Northern
Ireland) and staf?ng resources were limited. At QUB the agenda was driven by three full-
time academics and one extra-curricular of?cer, supported by a student intern.
According to the information given as part of this research the key factors to embedding
entrepreneurship education at QUB were identi?ed as:
Entrepreneurship education needs to be customised and meaningful to the •
cohort/discipline (for example biomedical, nursing and computer science)
and it needs to be practical or action-oriented where students engage in
credit-bearing activities.
From an academic perspective, appropriate pedagogies are essential •
to delivering entrepreneurship education. There is an emphasis on the
importance of re?ective assignments, rather than creating a ‘business plan
competition’ scenario, a re?ective business plan can form part of the student’s
application. For example students are assessed on their undertaking of a
networking event (how they perform in relation to preparation, delivery
and follow up after the event), where they maintain a re?ective diary which
captures learning activity.
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At UU (the lead partner), entrepreneurship education is also embedded in a wide spread
of undergraduate degree pathways within the science, technology and engineering
disciplines; entrepreneurship is a core module of study in over 200 programmes offered
in each academic year. In addition entrepreneurship is also embedded in postgraduate
taught programmes and in research training for all those studying for the Masters by
research and for all doctoral students.
At undergraduate level, given the high demand for entrepreneurship education at all four
campuses, NICENT at UU has relied on innovative delivery methods and the use of new
interactive learning technologies to deliver entrepreneurship materials. The centre at UU
has heavily invested in the development of three online modules for entrepreneurship
– two at undergraduate level in Entrepreneurship Awareness and Entrepreneurship
Applied and one at postgraduate level Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Whilst
expertise for online module development was available from within UU (in the top ?ve
for global lighthouses for online education) it was more time and cost- effective for
NICENT to secure external expertise in developing online materials for entrepreneurship
education.
Similar to QUB, NICENT at UU has only three academic staff members across four
geographically dispersed campuses and two administrative staff at headquarters; therefore
there is an onus on encouraging champion for enterprise within the particular faculties.
The Centre at UU offers train the trainer programmes for delivering entrepreneurship and
for e-tutoring (in conjunction with its virtual campus staff). Academics within the various
disciplines become the e-tutors of the online modules where they are initially supported
by both NICENT academic staff and the virtual campus at the university – technical
support. The interviewees were keen to point out that the role of lecturer greatly differs
from that of the e-tutor. The e-tutor is more likely to act as a facilitator, managing the
student experience in terms of access to the module, interpreting of the e-content and
interaction within the e-learning environment. In the e-module set-up there is a provision
for face-to-face tutorials to further enhance the e-learning experience. E-tutors are also
given ownership of the e-content and can upload additional discipline-speci?c materials
(e.g. relevant case studies) and manage the course as they see ?t in terms of assessment
strategies. The e-module is designed to be assessed fully online thereby encouraging
self-directed learning, peer learning and re?ective learning.
For UU, the success of piloting entrepreneurship education through online interactive
technologies has been rewarded. For instance there has been increased uptake of
entrepreneurship modules of study and NICENT at UU has been named as an exemplar
by Higher Level Learning for its e-learning activity. However, the process of engaging
staff has not been straight forward. The interviewees indicated that the main challenges
were:
Engaging appropriate key champions in each faculty. •
Encouraging staff to undertake the mandatory module as part of their •
programme.
Encouraging staff to undertake the elective modules as part of their •
programme.
Scheduling ‘train the trainer’ programmes at the various campuses. •
Financial resourcing for sustaining entrepreneurship activity given increased •
demand and turnover in staff champions.
At UU, NICENT also sought funding from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) in
the UK, to be able to offer academics the opportunity to travel to the US for one week
of intensive training at Babson College, the recognised global leader in entrepreneurship
education. In addition, NICENT at UU also appointed a number of visiting/adjunct
professors to further enhance the practical-oriented offering for students and enhance
linkages with industry. Involvement of industry in entrepreneurship education was thought
to be valuable in changing organisational and cultural change for entrepreneurship
at institutional level. QUB are currently developing a full programme in Enterprise at
postgraduate level (MSc Enterprise). It is aimed at graduates who are ready to implement
and commercialise a viable business idea and wish to obtain a Masters. Mentoring from
successful high-growth entrepreneurs and university expertise in the commercialisation
of academic research will be a vital component to the work-based learning approach in
this programme.
Across the NICENT Partner Institutions, entrepreneurship teaching relies on creating
awareness initially followed by application. The NICENT model relies on a wide range of
teaching tools. The interviewees cited, for example, interactive learning, active learning,
experiential learning, peer learning, re?ective learning and project-based learning.
The learning activities were dependent upon the discipline. The use of multimedia has
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expanded to include podcasts and online, simulation business games. Links have been
established between curricular study, extra-curricular activity and other internal and
external enterprise and career development support systems. Alumni links have also given
students the opportunity to learn from the enterprise experiences of recent graduates.
The NICENT model rewards entrepreneurial learning with credit-bearing programmes
and students who have successfully completed modules in entrepreneurship (and
are eligible for graduation) will receive a Certi?cate in Entrepreneurship Studies from
their university upon graduation as noted on the student transcript from the university
examinations of?ce.
4.1.2 Evaluating the Provision of Entrepreneurship Education
The interviewees emphasised the importance of ongoing feedback and monitoring of
the provision of entrepreneurship education within their Institution. Note evaluation
was necessary for the purposes of satisfying external funder requirements but it also
became part of internal monitoring activity and according to the interviewees assisted
in improving course content. Both staff and students were involved in evaluating the
entrepreneurship modules of study at both institutions. To illustrate, the data mined
from student feedback assists in course evaluations and (re)validations where the
programmes are externally reviewed and examined. This also ensured entrepreneurship
education (learning outcomes) was explicit within course programmes and was therefore
truly embedded rather than a ‘bolt-on’ activity within courses. At UU data mining also
provided the lead partner in NICENT with information to inform future practice of the
Centre.
Regarding the impact of entrepreneurship education, the student data captures
attitudinal change (self-assessed) in entrepreneurial competency before and after
completion of their entrepreneurship programme. To illustrate from the NICENT tracking
mechanisms at UU a recent follow-up survey of 50 postgraduates revealed that exposure
to entrepreneurship education and in particular a business plan competition encouraged
entrepreneurial behaviours. Over 30% of graduates (postgraduate level) had sold their
ideas or licensed their IP. Conversion rates have increased over time; 2006/07 data shows
?ve start-ups had licensing agreements in place but the 2008 cohort had all started their
own business.
4.2 University of Satakunta, Finland (FINPIN Member)
The Finnish Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network for Higher Education (FINPIN), is a
network of Polytechnics or Universities of Applied Science. It has been recognised by the
European Commission as an example of good practice in entrepreneurship education
and was deemed a Centre of Excellence by the Finnish Ministry of Education in 2006. A
site visit was undertaken to the University of Satakunta, a FINPIN member to explore their
twin approach which involves entrepreneurship education and an enterprise support
programme called ‘Enterprise Accelerator.’
Satakunta University of Applied Sciences has similar structures to those of HEIs in Ireland,
providing incubation facilities and having Technology Transfer/Industrial Liaison functions
to promote information and technology transfer.
4.2.1 Enterprise Accelerator programme
The Enterprise Accelerator programme has created over 150 knowledge-intensive
entrepreneurs from various academic disciplines since 1996. The programme was
originally designed for engineering students but has since been extended to include
other disciplines such as: social and health care, business administration, communication,
tourism and ?ne arts. To facilitate the establishment of cross-disciplinary participation,
long-term commitment and ownership within the University, the management and
delivery of the Enterprise Accelerator programme is rotated annually across different
faculties. In addition to promoting collaboration and active participation within the
organisation, the programme encourages collaboration on a regional, national and
international level.
However, whilst management responsibility is compulsory within the annual rotation
scheme, a passive approach has been adopted in the recruitment of multi-disciplinary
academics for this initiative. Faculty members are advised of the opportunity to
participate as a mentor on the programme irrespective of background and interested
staff must complete a mandatory module in entrepreneurship education training. This
approach was preferred as it ensured participation from those academics with a genuine
interest in, and commitment to, entrepreneurial activity and the promotion of enterprise
development initiatives amongst students. Two-thirds of the mentors have been recruited
from the business school.
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The mentors are teachers and researchers within the University. The mentor’s role will
vary according to the needs and requirements of the particular student; they might
mentor a student through the process of developing their business idea or devising
their personal study plan for professional and entrepreneurship studies. The mentoring
system matches the student with the mentor on the basis of the proposed enterprise
idea, with the mentor selected from the relevant discipline. The rationale being that
the fundamental tools of enterprise creation are provided within the relevant technical
context.
The University has an annual budget of €34 million. They have been awarded €700K
for their Enterprise Accelerator Programme from the Ministry of Education. Since 1996,
they have self-funded their E-Learning programme and have paid for 1500 mentor hours
from 15 mentors, selected on a cross-disciplinary basis.
The practical process of embedding entrepreneurship education within all courses on the
curricula was not problematic. Non-business schools could easily replace non-business
modules with enterprise modules due to the structure of courses within the University.
Table 9 University of Satakunta E-Learning Programme
Stage of
Programme
Credits
Awarded
Detail of Content
1 3
Business Idea Development
Evaluation of Business Environment
Development of Business Proposal
Commitment made by student and University
2 3 Development of Business Plan
3 3
Start-up Phase (student is given advice from local enterprises
and information on the business start-up process.
4 3
Post Start-up Stage (After 1 Year)
Evaluate Performance
Build Marketing Strategy
Develop a Growth and Sustainability Plan
5 3 Continuation of Stage 4
Note: Each stage involves support from the mentor.
Guest lectures and special entrepreneurship seminars are routine within the University of
Satakunta. Efforts are also made to include alumni but no formal, structured programme
of involvement or alumni tracking are in place. An e-learning programme is available to
all interested students regardless of discipline; this is currently being implemented within
two partner Universities in the region.
The e-learning module encourages students to generate a business idea, map out a
business plan, a start-up strategy and consequently, evaluate their ?rst year’s performance
before developing a plan for growth and sustainability. At this point the student must
make a commitment to the University and in turn, the University commits to support
the student. The details of University supports, in particular IP rights, were not fully
?nalised at the time of writing. Throughout this process, mentor support is available to
the student as required.
4.2.2 SOTEEKKI - A Social Enterprise Education Initiative
Within the faculty of Social Services and Health Care, they tailored the Enterprise
Accelerator programme to suit the needs of their students and the local community.
Soteekki, is an enterprise education initiative funded on a partnership basis between
the Ministry of Education in Finland (60%) and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences
(40%). The primary aim is to increase the number of welfare enterprises in the University,
to meet the demand for services which currently exceeds public sector delivery and
private enterprise provision. A secondary aim is to provide all Social Services and Health
Care students with experience in entrepreneurial activities in the hope that some may
become involved in enterprise development during their studies. It proved more dif?cult
to get students interested in this social enterprise initiative, and so, the University made
participation a mandatory part of programmes for students undertaking healthcare
degrees.
Mentors frequently participate in contract negotiations within the SOTEEKKI initiative, in
addition to providing follow-up support throughout the development of the enterprise.
One such project is a Home Help scheme which addresses a gap in provision in this
area. The centre is currently developing a contact network to facilitate the identi?cation
of gaps, and therefore opportunities, for other services which can be offered by the
centre.
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Student Engagement
The entire student population, across all years, is surveyed at the beginning of each
academic year to evaluate their interest in entrepreneurship. These studies have typically
found that forty-seven percent (47%) of students are interested in entrepreneurship,
with approximately forty percent (40%) of these students being from the Business
faculty, a similar proportion (40%) from Engineering and the remainder (20%) being
Arts or Social and Healthcare students. A passive approach is also taken to student
recruitment and participation within the scheme; students are made aware of the
availability of entrepreneurship education and enterprise support and they decide if they
wish to actively participate.
Measuring Success
Whilst generating and supporting graduate start-ups is the primary focus (the Accelerator
programme sets annual targets for new graduate start-ups), there is also an emphasis on
graduates having developed an entrepreneurial mindset to ensure that those students
not engaging in enterprise creation, are intrapreneurial within industry.
Senior Management Support
Winning the commitment of Senior Management for the programme has been a slow
process and is an ongoing challenge. However, the recognition gained and awards
from the Ministry of Education since 2004 have assisted in raising awareness amongst
management of the signi?cance of entrepreneurship education and have slowly helped
to change attitudes and generate support.
4.3 National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), UK.
During the 1990s, the British Government sought to increase the employability
of graduates by ensuring that they left HEIs with a range of skills to enhance their
employability. Within the initiatives introduced, was an aim to promote entrepreneurship
as an alternative career option for graduates. As it evolved however, there was an
increasing recognition that entrepreneurship did not merely equate to self-employment,
but was re?ective of a mindset involving individuals being creative, innovative, committed
and ?exible amongst other attributes and skills. As a result, the British Government
has, at a strategic level, sought to foster entrepreneurship education and enterprise
learning throughout the entire education system, from primary school through to higher
education.
In 2004, following a review of graduate entrepreneurship in the UK which highlighted
signi?cant inadequacies in comparison to the US model (most signi?cantly, limited and
piecemeal evidence of entrepreneurship education being embedded into the curricula
outside the business school and lower rates of graduate start-up), Gordon Brown
founded the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE). Two government
departments: the Department of Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) were responsible
for the NCGE, the two main objectives of which were, to develop more graduate
entrepreneurs and to produce graduates with the entrepreneurial mindset, values and
skills. To ful?l these objectives, NCGE identi?ed four target areas:
Long-term cultural change within the Universities. •
Shape the Institutional environment for enterprise and entrepreneurship and •
embed good practice.
Increase the number of businesses from graduates. •
Inform national and regional policy that affects entrepreneurship in •
universities.
The NCGE undertakes the following activities to ful?l objectives:
4.3.1 Targeting Student Engagement
In conjunction with Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), NCGE introduced a ‘Flying
Start’ programme which works directly with students and graduates. The Flying Start
programme comprised awareness events, called ‘rallies’, that seek to inspire students
to give serious consideration to starting their own business. Subsequently, potential
graduate entrepreneurs could participate in a twelve-month long programme focused
on the practical aspects of creating and establishing a new business. These programmes
enable students to access experienced support to develop their business idea and to
access assistance from accountants, lawyers, enterprise support agencies, business
mentors and business networks. There is also an online resource offering support and
mentoring to participants, peer networking and an online marketplace to facilitate the
buying and selling of products.
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Since 2005, 5,500 and graduates attended the Flying Start Rallies, with a programme
evaluation from 2005 reporting that approximately 50% of graduate start-ups from the
programme had begun trading. To date, Flying Start has resulted in:
592 businesses launches •
£815,000 in seed-capital secured •
12,000 online graduate registrations. •
The Flying Start programme has also been tailored to target speci?c groups or sectors
as required, for example, graduate engineers, social enterprises, creative industry
entrepreneurs and so on. Microsoft co-sponsors a software graduate programme, whilst
the Royal Society of Arts co-sponsors a programme for arts graduates. Additionally,
a joint International Entrepreneurship programme is delivered in conjunction with the
Kauffman Foundation for the UK’s top-performing graduate entrepreneurs in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. The programme runs for six months in the
UK and six months in the US and focuses on developing the students own innovative
product idea and entrepreneurial internships.
4.3.2 Targeting Educators and Campus Entrepreneurship Agents
The UK review of entrepreneurship education across the University sector also
highlighted the overriding focus of the “business-school” model as the primary vehicle
for entrepreneurship education (Hannon, 2005). The review identi?ed a gap between
the traditional competencies and approach of UK Universities (typically, classroom
pedagogies underpinned by a “business-plan” project) and the training requirements
for entrepreneurs. Consequently, NCGE developed the “International Entrepreneurship
Educators Programme”, which aims to build the professional capability of entrepreneurship
educators within the HE environment. The programme adopts an entrepreneurial ethos
and participants are expected to be active co-learners along with the international
faculty of experts, over the eighteen-month duration of the programme. Underpinning
the programme is a wide array of well developed pedagogies based on action and
experiential learning. Completion of the course can lead to an MA Entrepreneurship
Education award from Coventry University and a professional quali?cation from the Staff
and Educational Development Association (SEDA).
4.3.3 Leadership Development Programme
This programme targets senior University management staff. It raises awareness of the
philosophical, strategic and practical issues surrounding best practice in bringing about
the Institutional change required for entrepreneurship education. Participants’ skills
are developed to facilitate their ability to persuade key stakeholders in their contexts,
to support enterprise education. It looks speci?cally at how to make Universities and
Colleges more entrepreneurial as organisations and explores the environmental forces
driving that change.
NCGE has de?ned the key characteristics of an entrepreneurial University (HEI) as:
Strong leadership that develops entrepreneurial capacities for staff and •
students.
Strong ties with the business community as stakeholders. •
The delivery of entrepreneurial outcomes that make an impact on people and •
organisations.
Innovative pedagogies that inspire entrepreneurial action. •
Multidisciplinary approaches to education that mimic real-world experiences •
and focus on solving complex world challenges.
A drive to promote the application of the entrepreneurial mindset. •
Additionally, they have proffered an evaluation framework for programmes (Robertson
2007) which identi?es learning outcome categories, such as:
Entrepreneurial behaviour, attitude and skill development. •
Creating empathy with the entrepreneurial life-world. •
Key entrepreneurial values. •
Motivation to entrepreneurship career. •
Understanding the process and tasks of business entry. •
Generic entrepreneurship competencies. •
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Key business ‘how-to’s’. •
Managing relationships. •
The importance of Senior Management buy-in and support in embedding and delivering
high quality entrepreneurship education to all graduates is apparent.
4.4 Entrepreneurship Education Delivery Models
The European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Research and Harvard Business School
contend that the US model of entrepreneurship education is much more evolved than its
European counterpart in every measurable metric from course availability, average funding
per school for entrepreneurship activities, to the number of Chairs and research centres
available (Twaalfhoven, 2000). It is understandable then perhaps, that so many of the
European good practice exemplars have been informed by the US model.
There are two key structural models of entrepreneurship education identi?ed in the
literature: the magnet model and the radiant model, often referred to as the centralised or
de-centralised models (Streeter et al., 2002; Streeter 2004) as outlined in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Structural Models for Entrepreneurship Programmes in the US
The centralised or magnet model is employed by the majority of American Universities
including MIT, Babson, and Case Western. The magnet model utilises the opening up
of courses to non-business students through the creation of minors or specialisations
and/or the creation of joint degree programmes where entrepreneurship is taught to
students through the business school.
Conversely, the decentralised or radiant model diffuses entrepreneurship education
across schools and faculties. This model is employed by Cornell University and facilitates
student access to entrepreneurship modules at school level.
The adoption of the radiant model approach may introduce dif?culties in securing the
long-term position of entrepreneurship education within the non-business curricula,
in addition to co-ordination dif?culties reported in the American context. The
implementation of a centralised model may be more easily facilitated within the Irish
context given that semesterisation and modularisation are ubiquitous in the Republic
of Ireland, and that most HEIs have a central business school. However, this would also
necessitate the education of Management and staff in all departments as to the bene?ts
of entrepreneurship education, to foster management support and strategic integration.
This would require the negotiation of entrepreneurship education inclusion within the
curriculum on a discipline by discipline, programme-by-programme basis, should a
bottom-up approach to embedding entrepreneurship education be necessary. Moreover,
staff from non-business disciplines may not feel that the particular requirements of their
discipline are adequately appreciated or re?ected in offerings from the business school.
Therefore, to maximise relevance and success, greater cross-disciplinary working would
be required.
The cultural contexts are markedly different between Ireland and the US. In the US,
there is a culture which celebrates and champions entrepreneurship and successful
entrepreneurs; failure is socially acceptable and not stigmatised.
However, the Institutional commitment to entrepreneurship education has only been
made possible in the US through the commitment and involvement of senior University
leaders (President, Chancellor, Provost etc), this Senior Management engagement has
been a major catalyst for success within Institutions and also, for raising signi?cant
external funding to support continued programme delivery through endowed Chairs
in Entrepreneurship, for example. The necessity of Senior Management support is a
recurring theme across good practice exemplars.
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In the UK, enterprise within HEIs has been introduced by virtue of two distinct approaches:
the bottom-up and top-down approaches (Botham and Mason, 2007:23). Their study
found that several UK HEIs introduced accredited course modules or components
within existing programmes as a result of individual initiatives for example, University
of Nottingham and University of Shef?eld. Interestingly, these initiatives were often
instigated by individuals with industry, as opposed to academic, backgrounds. A top-
down, strategic approach was employed at other HEIs including Coventry, Strathclyde,
Sunderland and Staffordshire, that tended to have a greater tradition of ‘vocational
education’ which is reported to have proved a ‘less daunting’ challenge in terms of
implementation.
Regardless of the approach taken, the same two delivery models (centralised and
diffused/radiant delivery mechanisms) were employed in the UK context. Centralised
delivery was undertaken in either one of two ways; either being centralised within the
business school or centralised within a new independent unit, such as the Hunter Centre
at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Botham and Mason (2007: 30) outline similar
centres in Leeds, Dundee, Nottingham, Portsmouth and University College London;
however, they highlight that such units have tended to be self-?nancing and have
experienced dif?culty in achieving sustainability. This often resulted in either a focus on
extra-curricular delivery or engagement in external, income-generating activities which
sometimes led to ‘less entrepreneurship-related activity’.
Decentralised delivery has also been adopted at various UK Institutions including
the University of Shef?eld, where a top-down approach was employed encouraging
individual Departments to devise and deliver education for entrepreneurship, according
to their own speci?c requirements. To support this, funds were made available to enable
Departments to develop their own modules for inclusion within existing programmes.
At Leeds Metropolitan University however, a slightly different approach was adopted
with Faculty Pioneers being used to help staff from other disciplines, with typically no
previous enterprise education or training, to design the courses.
In consideration of approaches and methods of implementation, Botham and Mason
(2007) suggest that experimentation should continue in order to truly identify best
practices, as opposed to Institutions prematurely selecting a good practice model.
Section 5
Conclusions
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Section 5
Conclusions
This study, therefore, calls for entrepreneurship education that is ‘?t-for-purpose’
today. That is, an entrepreneurship education (for and about entrepreneurship) for all
students that will not only provide theoretical knowledge but ensure graduates develop
an entrepreneurial mindset, through developing entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and
attitudes and equipping them with the key entrepreneurial competences to enable
them to enjoy an entrepreneurial (intrapreneurial) career or engage in new venture
creation. This can only be achieved through student-centred teaching and learning that
employs innovative, experiential learning methodologies in conjunction with assessment
mechanisms that award credit for extra-curricular and practical activities delivered by a
coordinated, student-focused Institutional infrastructure.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Presidents of Irish Universities and Institutes of Technology
surveyed, reported that entrepreneurship was incorporated within their written Mission
Statement. A greater proportion however, 58%, report that their own Institutions have
Institute-wide policies and plans in place, to assist with the development of entrepreneurial
behaviours, skills, experiences and mindsets.
According to the Senior Management within the HEIs in Ireland, the main goals
relating to entrepreneurship education within their Institutions was, apart from creating
entrepreneurial graduates, to promote graduate start-up enterprises and to support
the commercialisation of existing knowledge. Despite this ?nding however, our study
highlighted that in seventy-?ve percent (75%) of Institutions surveyed, all students cannot
undertake entrepreneurship education, even in cases where they may wish to do so. The
perception of a widespread lack of entrepreneurship education for non-business students
within the third level education sector in Ireland would seem to be well founded.
The challenges encountered in the process of translating policy into delivery related to:
in?exibility in organisational structures, timetabling and education delivery formats; a lack
of development resources; and limited multi-disciplinary approaches. These dif?culties
must be overcome however, as, in an exploratory survey of almost 300 ?rst-year, non-
business undergraduates, 72% reported that in their opinion, entrepreneurship education
should be incorporated within their programme of study.
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Seventy-eight percent (78%) of undergraduate students surveyed expressed an interest
in starting their own business at some point in the future. These students reported
that their entrepreneurial interest was most in?uenced by family members who had
started a business (33%) followed by high-pro?le entrepreneurs (22%). It must be
noted however, that this study was undertaken in late 2008, before the full ravages
of the global recession upon the Irish economy were experienced. It is intended to
survey this same student grouping in each year of their studies which will provide an
opportunity to fully explore the potential impact of the recessionary experience on their
entrepreneurial intent.
Undergraduate students indicated that their key motivations for new venture creation
would be: obtaining wealth and success (24%) and being their own boss (23%). Students’
entrepreneurial intent is reported to be most in?uenced by family members who have
started their own business; this was closely followed by high-pro?le entrepreneurs and
thirdly, by media coverage. The importance of ensuring that ‘entrepreneurial heroes’,
such as Richard Branson and Bill Gates, are not the only role-models that our students
are exposed to cannot be over-stated. The reasons are twofold: ?rstly, there is an issue
of expectation management and secondly, providing role-models that students can
relate to and identify with, is more likely to assist them in overcoming potential barriers
surrounding self-ef?cacy.
Whilst there is richness of entrepreneurship and enterprise support activity at local level,
there is no national framework to support the development of such activities, capture
lessons from them and freely disseminate those to other HEIs. This militates against the
realisation of the full potential for entrepreneurship education within the HEIs in Ireland.
The predominant pedagogical tool for the provision of entrepreneurship education in
continues to centre around the development of a business plan; however, it is evident
from examples of international best-practice that there is signi?cant scope for the
development of innovative methodologies that incorporate extra-curricular activities.
The current lack of evaluation of entrepreneurship education offerings within the
HEIs must be addressed. Effective evaluation and a climate of continuous review and
improvement can only serve to enhance student learning. The challenge to extend current
education about enterprise to incorporate elements of education for entrepreneurship
would not be as daunting if such educational good practices were standard across all
courses, programmes and Institutions. This would also facilitate the incorporation of
education for entrepreneurship across curricula ensuring horizontal delivery.
Students were also highly optimistic about the success of any venture they would create
and reported, overall, that their main motivation for engaging in entrepreneurship
would be to obtain wealth and success. Whilst an aim of any entrepreneurial education
programme is likely to be the instillation of the necessary con?dence within students to
engage in new venture creation, it is also important to ensure that their expectations are
realistic. In this regard, it is important to ensure that high level success stories are not the
only entrepreneurial role models to which students are exposed.
The staff surveyed in this research were positive about working with others in diverse
disciplines to progress the entrepreneurship agenda on campus. Lessons from
international good practice examples would highlight that educate within HEIs in Ireland
should be provided with:
Training in good practice teaching and assessment methods. •
Simulated, experiential learning to develop entrepreneurial skills and •
behaviours amongst educators, especially when there is no requirement for
previous entrepreneurial experience.
Ongoing training with the necessary supports in place to facilitate engagement •
in regular good practice exchange activities with colleagues nationally and
internationally.
The current lack of integration of good practice entrepreneurship education across
curricula militates against the HEIs in Ireland delivering on their Government de?ned
agenda of creating the entrepreneurial graduate. This was echoed by 64% of
undergraduate students who did not consider their Institution to suf?ciently promote
entrepreneurship as a career option.
The use of experience-based teaching methods is critical to developing these
entrepreneurial skills and abilities amongst graduates. This will require entrepreneurial
educators who may have had real-world or simulated experience of starting and/or
operating their own business and will require the training of lecturers in new teaching
methods. It is essential that educators are recognised and encouraged, and provided
with the means to enhance their own teaching skills and to be entrepreneurial and
innovative in developing new teaching methods and resources.
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Having explored how the HEIs in Ireland could assist in creating a greater number of
more highly skilled, entrepreneurial graduates; this study then sought to explore the
supports provided to those graduates with entrepreneurial potential currently within
the system. Unfortunately, this study highlighted that existing support infrastructures to
assist entrepreneurial graduates in converting their aspirations and ideas into enterprises
or commercialised knowledge, are not being suf?ciently promoted in order to encourage
uptake. Whilst 47% of postgraduate students are keenly interested in engaging in
knowledge transfer and commercialisation:
59% of non-business postgraduates had no knowledge of their Institutional •
IP policy.
79% either had no knowledge or were only vaguely aware of enterprise •
development and commercialisation supports available.
73% had received no advice or training relating to IP. •
64% had received no training assistance in developing a business plan or •
funding application.
It would appear that currently the HEIs are not encouraging the exploitation of
research with commercial potential; nor are they equipping postgraduates with the
skills, knowledge, capabilities and contacts to facilitate entrepreneurial graduates in
commercialising their work or engage in the new venture creation process.
This study found that 39% of postgraduate students are interested in setting up their
own business through their college infrastructure; despite this, there is a reported lack
of student enquiries and start-ups within campus incubators. It would appear that our
higher education Institutions are currently sti?ing potentially entrepreneurial graduates
in Ireland due to the culmination of various factors, including: a lack of communication
about, and visibility of, entrepreneurial supports and policies; a lack of coordination of
the different but complementary entrepreneurship and enterprise support activities; and
a lack of education and training for and about entrepreneurship. Additional resources
and Senior Management commitment are required to ensure the co-ordinated and
effective implementation of measures to address this scenario.
Although there are some examples where there is suf?cient provision of entrepreneurial
supports and training for postgraduate students, a signi?cant gap remains nationally
in the provision of access to ?nancial information, training, information on intellectual
property and the opportunity for commercialisation. While enterprise and industry are
interested in engaging with academia in terms of research and practical outputs, there
is a clear need for structured support and interventions that would ensure the provision
of an effective collaborative model that is mutually bene?cial.
There currently exists an absence of an articulated, integrated, strategic policy for
entrepreneurship education, both Institutionally and nationally, that would support
good practice in entrepreneurship education amongst staff and students at all levels
and across all disciplines. The HEI Service Management respondents in this study have
indicated that changing mindsets is a key challenge for improving entrepreneurship
education at an Institutional level.
It is apparent that, in Ireland, the ability to develop and deliver high-quality, good
practice education for and about entrepreneurship is signi?cantly affected by the
internal organisational structure of an Institution. In 64% of Institutions, no one
person had the primary responsibility for entrepreneurship at a strategic level with
entrepreneurship education relying on one, or a small number of people, within their
Institution. Furthermore, the efforts of entrepreneurship champions are being eroded
because of structural issues.
The need for integrating relevant enterprise activities into programmes that traditionally
have had no enterprise dimension will require resources and close collaboration with
existing enterprise educators, campus incubation centres and Technology Transfer
of?cers (to share case studies and provide access to guest speakers).
Approximately two-thirds of the HEIs in Ireland do not import teaching methods with even
fewer availing of a formalised national exchange of good practice in entrepreneurship
education. A major challenge is to create a network and networking opportunities for
academics to develop and enhance good practices based on the experiences of others.
The HEIs in Ireland face a steep learning curve in raising the standard of campus
entrepreneurship education and activity. They also need to bridge the gap between
academics and industry, which often results from practitioners not seeing education
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provision as relevant and many time-constrained business people see limited payback
for active participation in the education process. Industry engagement with tertiary
education sector is neither widespread nor intensive despite initiatives to mainstream
such collaboration. While private funding and active engagement with entrepreneurs in
the teaching process is common within the entrepreneurial University culture of the US,
this is a challenge for the HEIs in Ireland.
This will require a cultural change and, in order to bridge the gap, industry must be
informed, and consulted, about changes in the academic agenda. It is increasingly
recognised amongst the third-level academic community that entrepreneurship education
today cannot be solely academic in nature. Entrepreneurship education today must
also incorporate experiential learning, training and mentoring opportunities to ensure
a student-focused education system that offers knowledge, skills and competence-
building to equip graduates for entrepreneurial careers in industry as employees or
business owners. This focal shift must be communicated to industry.
It would seem therefore that the key success factors for ‘?t-for-purpose’ entrepreneurial
education today relate to:
Policy support to ensure a strategic, integrated approach is adopted for the •
long-term placement of entrepreneurship education on the educational
agenda and to facilitate the adequate resourcing to develop the necessary
infrastructures and cultural change.
Senior Management leadership and support in resourcing entrepreneurship •
education across curricula within Institutions.
Co-ordination and promotion of activities and collaborative working between •
academics, researchers, enterprise support staff and technology transfer
functions within Institutions. In this way, programmes of enterprise support
and commercialisation assistance will be highly visible and be offered, and
accredited, as part of a wider programme of entrepreneurship and enterprise
education.
Entrepreneurial Educators, entrepreneurs and business advisers providing •
real-world simulations and experiential learning to students to ensure that
students possess the requisite theoretical and practical business knowledge,
entrepreneurial skills and competences to equip them for employment
and enterprise creation. This will require new methods, approaches and
educational offerings for delivery to students in addition to tailored training
for educators.
New assessment methods and greater ?exibility within education design and •
delivery systems so that extra-curricular enterprise activities can be accredited
within formal learning programmes.
Effective measurement and continual improvement of offerings to ensure •
quality, relevance and effectiveness.
International experience has shown that resource allocation and policy support tends
to follow on from the establishment of a robust evidence base. Whilst the success of
entrepreneurship education initiatives in the US and throughout Europe are proven, to
date such an evidence base has not been established within the Irish context, which
would, arguably, be more persuasive to national audiences. It is therefore of fundamental
importance that any initiatives include effective and robust evaluation mechanisms to
establish success.
In order to facilitate such effective evaluation, it is necessary to identify shared goals, aims
and expectations for entrepreneurship education in order to facilitate measurement of
related indices. Presidents of the HEIs in Ireland identi?ed the goals of entrepreneurship
education as being: the creation of entrepreneurial mindsets and skills amongst students,
increased numbers of graduate start-ups and increased rates of commercialisation of
existing knowledge. This, in turn, would suggest that an effective evaluation framework
to measure success should incorporate a range of metrics, which may include:
Visibility of entrepreneurship education within Mission Statement, policy •
documents and priorities of Institutions.
Numbers of students accessing entrepreneurial education and enterprise •
support programmes per Institution annually.
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Numbers of courses and disciplines which incorporate entrepreneurship •
education within Institutional portfolio of programme offerings.
Levels of engagement with industry; number of student placements, student •
projects, guest lectures.
Training provision to entrepreneurship educators. •
Longitudinal assessments of students’ entrepreneurial skills, behaviours and •
attitudes (this could include a combination of self-assessment and formal
evaluation).
Students’ understanding of the business start-up process, an appreciation of •
the real-world dif?culties and barriers likely to be encountered and knowledge
of the supports available from various internal and external sources.
Development of entrepreneurial competencies and business acumen and •
skills amongst student cohorts.
Recording of student enquiries re: commercialisation or new venture creation •
by lecturers, incubation centre managers and TTO/ILOs as appropriate.
Alumni tracking to ascertain the number of businesses established or •
commercialisation opportunities exploited in the longer-term.
Economic bene?ts delivered to local/regional economy re: job creation, job •
protection, wealth creation and investment from graduate enterprises or
commercialised knowledge.
Societal bene?ts i.e. target groups or communities assisted through social •
enterprise schemes.
Research outputs: peer reviewed journal articles, conference papers, case •
studies and ongoing action research and reporting.
Teaching material development, for example case-studies, online games, •
e-learning lectures.
Awards: for example, attraction of funding, increased student enrolments in •
more ‘entrepreneurial’ organisations, national/international recognition for
good practice in entrepreneurship education, quality of teaching, research
and/or supports.
Establishing an evidence base of the bene?ts of education for entrepreneurship, for
both students and Institutions within the third sector in Ireland, should enhance support
from Senior Management and policy makers. In the current economic climate, however,
establishing entrepreneurship education on the educational and Institutional landscape
is arguably more dif?cult than ever before; it is therefore important to assess success
in a holistic manner for example also measuring impacts and outcomes for regional
economies, communities and groups, in order to maximise potential funding streams.
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Section 6
Recommendations
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Section 6
Recommendations
The European Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
regards entrepreneurship education as being of fundamental importance for Ireland’s
economic growth. This is a view re?ected by the Irish Government and the Higher
Education Authority in various strategy and policy documents and funding initiatives, as
discussed in Section 1 of this report. Indeed, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs,
in devising a National Skills Strategy to support the country’s development to 2020,
identi?ed the need for generic skills to drive entrepreneurship and enterprise in Ireland.
The skills identi?ed map closely to the entrepreneurial skills, capabilities and competences
discussed in this document.
Whilst the global recession has necessitated swift ?scal action by the Government to
restore public ?nances, underpin the banking sector and safeguard our competitiveness
in the short-term, the requirement for longer-term vision, strategy and investment to
consolidate and re-build our economy is acknowledged. Indeed, this rationale underpins
the Forfás, ‘Sharing Our Future: Ireland 2025’ review of strategic policy requirements.
This document highlights the need for a longer-term framework to underpin national
prosperity, reminding the reader that decisions made today, affect all our tomorrows.
Forfás contend that innovation will remain a key driver of wealth creation and economic
development over the next two decades; however they assert that the term ‘innovation’
will not merely relate to technology but will, by necessity, include organisational
and business model innovation. Fundamental to achieving this economic progress is
the ability of enterprises to ‘access an entrepreneurial skills base’ which will only be
achieved via a ‘world-class education system.’ (Forfás, 2009). Indeed, it is envisioned
that Ireland’s enterprise structure will continue to evolve with a greater mix of large
and small innovation-intensive enterprises, increased lifestyle entrepreneurship and self-
employment (Forfás, 2009).
It is against this backdrop that Forfás predict that higher education Institutions will
compete internationally for students, with a requirement for education provision to
be more responsive to the needs of individuals and the market. This will necessitate
structural change, greater internal coordination and greater engagement with industry:
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‘Partnership between education and enterprise will also be a crucial
element to ensure we continue to provide the skills needed to build
a sustainable indigenous enterprise base and continue to attract and
retain foreign direct investment.’

(Forfás, 2009)
The lack of a strategic, coordinated national approach to campus entrepreneurship in
Ireland suggests the need for a supporting government body, similar to the National
Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) which informs and trains educators,
supports researchers, educates executive management, advises policymakers and
facilitates good practice exchange and networking.
In order for the HEIs in Ireland to ful?l its objectives of delivering graduates who can
create indigenous employment or deliver bene?t to employers, be they indigenous or
multi-national companies attracted by a highly skilled and creative labour market, change
must occur. Entrepreneurship education must be made available to all students in Ireland
within the higher education sector. This will require strategic vision and leadership from
Senior Management within the HEIs.
In addition, entrepreneurship education should similarly be incorporated within existing
courses offered on part-time, evening study basis through lifelong learning centres. In this
way, Irish citizens currently within the workforce can enhance their entrepreneurial skill
sets and deliver bene?t to their employers in the current challenging economic climate.
This research has highlighted a number of key areas in which the higher education system
can improve on current performance and exploit latent potential. Those include:
A focus on educating • for entrepreneurship and not solely about
entrepreneurship; in line with the Bologna Process, teaching and learning
should focus, not only on imparting knowledge but also, on assisting students
to develop the necessary competences. This will necessitate a paradigmatic
shift for business school academics who typically, according to Botham and
Mason, (2007:13), avoided education for entrepreneurship because it is
perceived to be too vocational.
All third-level education Institutions should examine their structures and •
processes to examine how functions (e.g. teaching, research, enterprise
support, technology transfer) can be re-engineered and better coordinated
to ensure student-focused teaching and support provision. This may involve
the allocation of strategic responsibility for entrepreneurship to ensure the
effective co-ordination of educational development and training, research,
enterprise support and knowledge transfer functions. In so doing, this could
facilitate regular networking and communication between key players within
Institutions.
It is also imperative that such networking and best practice sharing occurs •
across Institutions in Ireland. In addition, the HEIs in Ireland must become more
outward-looking and entrepreneurial in their own right, looking internationally
to keep abreast of developments in the ?eld, with the longer-term vision of
establishing Ireland as a leader in the ?eld.
During a period of state withdrawal and restricted access to ?nance for the •
private sector, it is imperative that social entrepreneurship is incorporated
within both teaching, experiential learning and enterprise support initiatives to
ensure that the HEIs contribute to their social objectives.
Commercialisation: The issue of lack of student awareness must be overcome, •
through communication to students about the supports available and their
potential applicability to their own research via a formal induction programme.
At the minimum, structured training and information sessions should be held
for students annually within Institutions. In addition, greater collaboration
should be undertaken between the HEIs to host on a biennial basis an event
to facilitate inter-Institutional networking amongst postgraduates, industry,
agencies and existing researchers. These events could be addressed by
individuals from successful spin-out companies and graduate enterprises.
A series of short graduate enterprise and commercialisation case studies •
highlighting small scale and large scale successes, and importantly failures,
should be developed for use in HE. This would assist in enabling less
con?dent students to identify with successful graduates and raise awareness
of support mechanisms informally. In addition, it could foster greater realism
and realistic goal-setting amongst over-optimistic students who may equate
entrepreneurship with “high-pro?le” entrepreneurs.
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A standardised system of measuring the ‘entrepreneurial’ ?tness of a HEIs •
would encourage Institutions to support the work of individual academics,
promote multi- and inter- disciplinary efforts and inform the change and/or
development of Institutional policy, culture and strategy through individualised
metrics and the ability to benchmark against national and international good
practice and performance.
A ‘Train the trainer’ programme for entrepreneurship education should be •
devised to support experiential learning and teaching approaches amongst
academics from all disciplines in Ireland.
Entrepreneurship education should be incorporated within third-level teacher •
training programmes to ensure that future generations of teachers can
incorporate entrepreneurship education within all subject areas.
National awards for Entrepreneurship Education Excellence should be •
established and publicised to assist in ensuring that this is an area that is valued,
to overcome the current lack of recognition and to assist in maintaining the
pro?le of entrepreneurship education on the Institutional policy landscape.
Section 7
Implications for
Future Research
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Section 7
Implications for Further Research
This study has drawn attention to a variety of entrepreneurship education research areas
including: the nature of entrepreneurship education, including the distinction between
educating for and about entrepreneurship and the distinction between education and
training; national policy and its effective implementation; Institutional models for delivery
and management; entrepreneurship teaching pedagogies and methods; evaluation of
effectiveness, impacts and outcomes; measurement of entrepreneurial propensity, intent
and self-ef?cacy; and, the impact of the media on entrepreneurial activity. There is a
wealth of research avenues to be explored and further developed. Within the con?nes
of this study however, research undertaken to date has highlighted further research of
bene?t to this project and the HEIs in Ireland.
Further research needs to be undertaken to re?ne the evaluation framework set out in
Section 5, it is considered that this could form the basis of an ‘Entrepreneurial Fitness
Check’ for the HEIs that will provide a pathway for Institutional progress across a
range of metrics. In order to develop this framework, various research studies could be
undertaken to assist with the re?nement of indicators, including:

A longitudinal assessment of the entrepreneurial interest of the •
undergraduates surveyed as part of this study. This will also offer an
opportunity to assess the impact of the economic downturn, and its media
coverage, on entrepreneurial interest amongst this grouping in addition to
re?ning measurement methods.
A longitudinal, tracking study of this undergraduate group to explore •
how many actually start a venture or engage in self-employment or IP
commercialisation or licensing activity of potential postgraduate research. This
would be outside the lifetime and funding lifespan of this study. However,
follow-up activity after one year, ?ve years and so on, would provide useful
data on the impacts and outcomes of the tertiary education system in
relation to enterprise creation and entrepreneurial skills development. This
could highlight unexpected outcomes and impacts not currently captured in
the framework outlined.
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This research raises interesting questions, concepts and challenges for •
stakeholders in the HEIs in Ireland. In order to garner support and generate
an evidence base to facilitate progress, a retrospective study is also
recommended to ascertain the career destinations of students graduating in
the formerly favourable economic climate without the bene?t of co-ordinated
or embedded entrepreneurship education.
It is recommended that research is undertaken to establish the baseline •
entrepreneurial skills, competences, attitudes and aptitudes of a future group
of students who will experience a greater co-ordination of entrepreneurship
education and enterprise support within the third level sector. It is recognised
that this educational environment may not yet exist within the HEIs in
Ireland. If this study were undertaken three or ?ve years from now however,
it would provide useful comparative data across Institutions with different
ranges of activities and different organisational cultures and could also be
compared against ?ndings for the other groups from each Institution i.e.
graduates from three or ?ve years ago who entered a more positive economic
environment with less coordinated entrepreneurship education and the
group currently under investigation. These three sets of data would not only
enable an analysis of the impact of entrepreneurship education controlling
for different economic climates but also, would provide longitudinal case
studies regarding the embedding of entrepreneurship education within
different organisational contexts and within the Irish context overall, that
could bene?t other organisations and countries.
The impact of ‘Train the trainer’ provision to educators should be explored, •
not only from the perspective of the educators but also, through comparative
analysis of student feedback and assessments.
Teaching materials developed within the context of the ACE Initiative •
should be assessed by educators and students to enable re?nement and
development. This would also serve as a critical learning exercise for educators
and students.
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Appendices
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Appendix I: ACE Initiative
International Advisory Committee
Prof. Paul D Hannon Director, Research and Education, NCGE
Dr. Matti Lahdeniemi Vice President, Dean of Technology and Maritime
Management, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Pauric McGowan Director, NICENT, University of Ulster
Paula Fitzsimons Strategy and Management Consultant, National GEM
Co-Coordinator
Wendy Kennedy President, wendykennedy.com.inc
Dr. Padraig O’Murchu Education and Research Manager, Intel Ireland Ltd.
Tom Carson Managing Director, Corporate and Government Solutions,
BT Ireland Ltd.
Colm Piercy CEO Digiweb Limited
Gerry Bedford Managing Director, IOMPAR BBA Europe
Martin Cronin CEO, Forfás
Brendan Flood Director of Regions, Enterprise Ireland
Patrick Doherty Regional Manager-North East, IDA Ireland
Gerry Finn Director, Border, Midland & Western Regional Assembly
Michael Curran Director of Service - Economic Development, Community,
Enterprise and Recreation, Louth County Council
Ronan Dennedy Chief Executive, Louth County Enterprise Board
John Reilly CEO, Sligo County Enterprise Board
Oisin Geoghegan CEO, Fingal County Enterprise Board
Sean O’Sullivan CEO, South Cork County Enterprise Board
Prof. Barra O’Cinneide Irish Australian Innovation Network
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Appendix II: ACE Initiative
Management and Development Committees
Management Committee Members
Irene McCausland Project Director, Dundalk Institute of Technology
Carole O’Leary Cork Institute of Technology
Assumpta Harvey Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
Doireann O’Connor Institute of Technology Sligo
Fiona Neary National University of Ireland
Sean MacEntee Dundalk Institute of Technology
Colman Ledwith Dundalk Institute of Technology
Cormac McMahon Institute of Technology Blanchardstown
Daithi Fallon Cork Institute of Technology
Dr. John Kane Institute of Technology Sligo
Development Committee Members
Angela Hamouda Lecturer, School of Business Studies, Dundalk Institute
of Technology
Colman Ledwith Lecturer, School of Engineering, Dundalk Institute of
Technology
Dr Cecilia Hegarty Regional Development Centre, Dundalk Institute of
Technology
Caroline O’Reilly Lecturer, Department of Accounting and Information
Systems, Cork Institute of Technology
Dr Daniel Boyd Lecturer, Department of Manufacturing, Biomedical
and Facilities Engineering, Cork Institute of
Technology
Claire Quigley Lecturer, Learning and Innovation Centre, Institute of
Technology Blanchardstown
Cormac McMahon Lecturer, Learning and Innovation Centre, Institute of
Technology Blanchardstown
Maebh Coleman National University of Ireland
Roisin McGlone Lecturer, Institute of Technology Sligo
Cathy O’Kelly Lecturer, Institute of Technology Sligo
Michael Walsh Lecturer, Cork Institute of Technology
Brian Cliffe Cork Institute of Technology
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Appendix III - Participating HEIs
University College Dublin
University College Cork
Trinity College
National University of Ireland (Galway)
National University of Ireland (Maynooth)
Dublin City University
Carlow Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology
Waterford Institute of Technology
Dundalk Institute of Technology
Tallaght Institute of Technology
Blanchardstown Institute of Technology
Cork Institute of Technology
Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Technology and Design
Tralee Institute of Technology
Limerick Institute of Technology
Athlone Institute of Technology
Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology
Sligo Institute of Technology
Letterkenny Institute of Technology
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