Description
On this particular information clarify legal eagle entrepreneurship education for law students special reference to international.
Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
ISSN: 0128-7702 © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
Journal homepage:http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/
Article history:
Received: 2 August 2013
Accepted: 11 October 2013
ARTICLE INFO
E-mail address:
[email protected] (Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas)
* Corresponding author
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students:
Special Reference to International Islamic University Malaysia
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas
1
*, Herna Muslim
2
and Zarinah Hamid
2
1
Ahmad Ibrahim Kuliyyah of Laws, Civil Law Department, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
In Malaysia, entrepreneurship education in higher learning education is not new.
The government has taken great efforts to transform the country’s economy into a
knowledge-based one and entrepreneurs have been identifed as one of the key elements
to the development of the knowledge economy. Lots of funds have been allocated by the
government to propagate the importance of graduates to become entrepreneurs and less
dependent on employers. For the law graduates in Malaysia, the job opportunities are multi
structured whereby they could either be in the judiciary, corporate and banking sectors or
conduct private practice. In most circumstances, law graduates will be attached to private
practices and this eventually will lead to most of them opening their own legal frms. Despite
the l nature of legal frms, lawyers can not avoid the standard business practices such as
preparing cash fow reports, the business and succession plans and audited account reports.
There are also many lawyers who set up businesses of different natures rather than legal,
such as construction and trading companies. As such, it is highly perceived that business
skills are also important to law undergraduates in preparing them for life after graduation.
One of the ways to do this is through entrepreneurship education. This paper intends to
discuss the perception and reception of law students on entrepreneurship education/skills.
A quantitative research methodology is adopted to identify the level of interest and/or
willingness of law undergraduates at the Faculty of Laws, International Islamic University
Malaysia to learn entrepreneurial skills and to be involved in business once they graduate.
Ke y words : Ent r e pr e ne ur s hi p e duc a t i on,
entrepreneurial skills, law students, Malaysian Higher
Learning Institution
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
84 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
INTRODUCTION
The increasing number of public and private
institutions in Malaysia has stimulated the
graduate population growth. As the number
of graduates exceeds the market demand,
the unemployment rate of fresh graduates
also increase. This is due to the lack of
job opportunities available (Ismail, 2011).
Thus, entrepreneurship seems to be one
of the solutions to reduce the dependency
of graduates to be employed. In order to
become entrepreneurs, the students need
entrepreneurship education to acquire the
entrepreneurial skills especially on how to
launch a new venture (Lebusa, 2011).
In the U.S., entrepreneurship education
has been introduced since 1938 with the
development of applied education in
entrepreneurship. The “small business or
entrepreneurship development” course was
offered by the University of Illinois prior to
1953 while the University of South Dakota
offered the course in 1954. The frst course in
entrepreneurship was introduced by Dwight
Baumann, an engineering professor at MIT in
1958. By the end of 1960s, entrepreneurship
education has been disseminated throughout
the world (McMullan and Long, 1987).
It was reported that, approximately 25
higher learning institutions in the U.S.
were offering entrepreneurship courses
by 1970, while in 1980, the number
tremendously increased to more than 150
institutions (McMullan and Long, 1987;
Lautenschläger and Haase, 2011). In 1985,
the demand for entrepreneurship education
had increased continuously, where there
were 245 institutions of higher education
with 253 schools offering entrepreneurship
courses found in U.S. (McMullan and Long,
1987). By early 1990s, the importance of
entrepreneurship education became highly
significant in the European, Asian, and
African institutions (Frederick et. al.., 2007;
Zakaria et. al.., 2011).
The awareness on the importance of
entrepreneurial education has triggered
policy initiatives like Higher Education
Innovation Funds (HEIF), Cambridge-
Massachusetts Initiative (CMI), Higher
Educat i on Academy (HEA) Subj ect
Centres, National Council for Graduate
Entrepreneurship (NCGE), Enterprise
Insight (EI), and so on to increase the number
of institutions offering entrepreneurship
programs (Gstraunthaler and Hendry, 2011).
Furthermore, the research in this feld also
has been developed with at least 45 refereed
academic journals made available which are
related to enterprise and entrepreneurship.
In fact, entrepreneurial education has
also triggered the interest of non-business
institutions whereby, new kinds of ‘e-ship’
like music entrepreneurship, nutrition
entrepreneurship, statistics entrepreneurship,
nursing entrepreneurship, and engineering
entrepreneurship have been launched by
campuses outside the Business schools
(Frederick et. al.., 2007).
In Malaysia, the development of
entrepreneurship education can be traced
to the pre-independence period. During
the colonialisation of British in Malaya,
the economic activity was segregated
according to racial lines, where the Indian
migrant workers worked in the rubber
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
85 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
plantation, Chinese in tin mines with some
in trading, and Malays in the low income
agricultural sector. This was to facilitate
the administrative operation of the British.
Upon independence, Malays as Bumiputersa
were given “special rights” in the form of
religion, economics, and politics in order
to upgrade their economic status and
subsequently achieve an equitable society.
However, these “special rights” did not
manage to reduce the economic inequality
between the Malays and other races mainly
the Chinese, so the New Economic Policy
(NEP) was introduced in 1970. The NEP was
mainly instituted with three main objectives;
to increase the ownership and participation
of the Bumiputeras in the corporate sector,
to increase participation of Bumiputeras
in high-income occupations, and to reduce
the income gap as well as alleviate poverty
(Ariff and Yanti, 2002).
The government also established a
Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial
Community (BCIC) in order to produce
more entrepreneurs and professionals among
Bumiputeras (Ariff and Yanti, 2002; Ninth
Malaysia Plan, 2006). In the last decade
of the 1990s, various entrepreneurship
programmes and initiatives such as the
National Development Policy (1990-
2000), Vision 2020 and the New Economic
Model (NEM) which are not confned to
Bumiputeras only have been implemented
by Malaysian government in order to train
and develop a self reliant nation to face
the challenges brought on by globalization
and the uncertain economic environment
(Othman et. al.., 2012). This is an important
agenda as globalization has intensifed the
economic competitiveness among countries
and slowly transformed the nation towards
the knowledge economy (Zakaria et. al..,
2011).
The transformation to knowledge
economy is needful for Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) to play an important role
in providing entrepreneurship education
for the development of entrepreneurial
attitudes and skills among the youths
(Zakaria et. al., 2011; Keat et. al., 2011).
The participation of the younger generation
in entrepreneurship could encourage them to
become job creators rather than job seekers
upon their graduation (Zakaria et.al., 2011
as cited in Jesselyn and Michell, 2006). In
fact, According to Chan et.al., (2009), in the
case of Malaysia, the youths who choose
entrepreneurship careers tend to survive
unemployment during the economic crisis.
As such, it is perceived that entrepreneurship
courses should not be taught to business
students only. This is due to the fact that,
many great ideas are developed by those
from non-business majors (Frederick et.
al.., 2007).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
Accordi ng t o Jones et . al . . (2004),
entrepreneurial education refers “to the
process of providing individuals with the
ability to recognize commercial opportunities
and the insight, self-esteem, knowledge and
skills to act on them” (p.146). Referring
to McMullan and Long (1987); Garavan
and O’Cinneide (1994), one of the major
problems of entrepreneurship education is
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
86 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
the lack of standardization in the program
syllabus. The content of entrepreneurship
education and program varies based on the
personal preference of the trainer on the
defnition and scope of the entrepreneurship.
The variation basically stems from the lack
of consensus in defining the meaning of
‘entrepreneur’. Moreover, Lautenschläger
and Haase (2011) highlighted that the
disparity also appears in terms of objectives,
content, pedagogy as well as supply and
expectation of entrepreneurial education
itself.
Lautenschläger and Haase (2011)
emphasize the economic and social goal
of the entrepreneurship education because
these objectives will refect the teaching
method and structure of entrepreneurship
courses. According to Jones and English
(2004), the curriculum should fulfll two
objectives, namely personal and enterprise
development objectives. The personal
development objectives basically focus
on the nurturing of entrepreneurial skills
and perspective of students, whereby the
students have to compare the ideal concept
of an entrepreneur with the skills and
attitudes that they possess. Meanwhile, the
enterprise development is focusing on how
to identify the opportunity, the process of
venturing into new businesses (developing
strategy, creating business plan, looking for
capital, etc), as well as harvesting strategy.
More importantly, these objectives need
to be operated simultaneusly. On the other
hand, Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) have
identifed three objectives that should be part
of the entrepreneurial curriculum, namely;
learn to understand entrepreneurship, learn
to become entrepreneurial, and learn to
become an entrepreneur. Lebusa (2011)
identifed two major objectives from ffteen
leading U.S. entrepreneurship programs,
which are to increase the student’s awareness
and understanding of entrepreneurship as a
process as well as a career option. From
these objectives, Lebusa (2011) as cited
in Jamieson (1984) has proposed a three-
category framework:
1. Education about enterprise: Deals
mostly with awareness creation, and
has the specifc objective of educating
students on various aspects of setting
up and running a business mostly from
a theoretical perspective.
2. Education for enterprise: Deals
more with the preparation of aspiring
entrepreneurs for a career in self-
employment with the specifc objective
of encouraging participants to set-up
and run their own business.
3. Education in enterprise: Deals
mainly with management training for
established entrepreneurs and focuses
on ensuring the growth and future
development of the business.
The above discussion highlighs that one
of the needs of entrepreneurship education
is for the Higher Education Institutions
to develop the entrepreneurial capacities
and mindsets of students through the
programs that can develop and sharpen
their skills of identifying and exploiting
opportunities as well as training them
to set up a businesses and manage their
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
87 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
growth. The entrepreneurial skills should
nurture the student’s ability to solve the
problem innovatively, instill creativity and
self-confdence, as well as encourage high
readiness for changes (Lebusa, 2011).
The success of entrepreneurial education
is highly dependent on the teaching
technique applied in the entrepreneurship
programmes. Frederick et. al.. (2007)
show discontentment towards the teaching
techniques and the evaluation process of
the entrepreneurship course which have
been practiced by the typical university-
based business schools. The business
schools are seen only eaching students how
to be employed and not to be employers
(Frederick et. al.., 2007) because too
much attention is given to qualitative and
corporate techniques (Jones and English,
2004) rather than human beings as a
whole (Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006).
According to Heinonen and Poikkijoki
(2006), the concentration towards human
beings as a whole should be included in
the entrepreneurship education because
it involves the integration of knowledge
(science), skills, and behaviour (art).
Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) and
Shariff et. al.. (2011) urge educators to apply
the learning enterprises approach which
is hands-on experience or action based
oriented as their teaching methodology and
to pay special attention to incorporating
experience, skill and knowledge instead
of just the conventional approach which
is teacher-centered learning. Keat et. al..
(2011) argued that, the main problem
of the teacher-centered approach which
is predominantly implemented by most
universities in Malaysia is the lack of
personal entrepreneurial experience of the
entrepreneurship lecturers themselves. The
lack of involvement in real business has
made it diffcult for them to relate theory
with real issues in entrepreneurial matters
especially those related to the induction of
ventures. Thus, action-based methods are
believed to encourage problem solving,
creativity, innovation (Jones and English,
2004; Lautenschläger and Haase, 2011) and
are considered very much helpful in peer
evaluation (Jones and English, 2004). In
fact, students can get experientiall learning
only when they apply those concepts like
leadership, management, and accounting
into real-life practice. Besides, the trial
and error during this process will help
them clearly understand the concept in
the classroom (Gstraunthaler and Hendry,
2011).
Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) also
promote the entrepreneurial-directed
approach as one of the teaching techniques
i n ent r epr eneur i al educat i on. Thi s
technique refers to the co-learning between
teachers and students, where “the student
has ownership of her or his learning
and the teacher acts as a supporter and
facilitator of the process” (Heinonen and
Poikkikoji, 2006, p.85). According to
them, the integration of the entrepreneurial
process, experiential-learning process and
entrepreneurial-directed approach enable the
learning process of entrepreneurial behavior
to be conducted in the class setting. In fact,
based on Pihie and Sani’s (2009) research, it
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
88 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
has been found that, running a real business,
visit to business locations, and interviews
with entrepreneurs are the three techniques
in entrepreneurial directed approach which
are most preferred by students.
Other than that, the entrepreneurial
internship programme also could stimulate
the intention of students towards becoming
an entrepreneur (Keat et. al.., 2011). The
techniques and programmes are seen to
be effective as they expose students to the
nature and practice of the real business
industry. In addition, the skills and the high
level of self effcacy from the experience
of those activities will motivate students
to start their own business (Pihie and Sani,
2009).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
IN MALAYSIAN HIGHER
LEARNING INSTITUTION
In the Multi Media University (MMU),
to nurture the entrepreneurship attitude
and ski l l s among t he st udent s, t he
entrepreneurship course is offered by the
programme called Bachelor of Multimedia
(Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
In fact, all MMU students regardless of
their course have to take the “Introduction
to Cyberpreneurship” subject. Universiti
Utara Malaysia (UUM) also offers courses
to motivate students towards becoming
ent repreneurs, namel y; t he St udent
Enterprise Program (SEP), Bachelor of
Entrepreneurship (a degree program), Basic
Entrepreneurship Course and Co-Curricular
Entrepreneurship activities (Faudziah and
Habshah, 2006). The entrepreneurship
programme at UUM is quite different
because it merges several entrepreneurship
processes into one programme. The
entrepreneurship processes include “the
environmental infuences and the processes
of planning, researching, and developing
entrepreneurial education and training”
(Zakaria et. al.., 2011). Similar to UUM,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, also offers a
degree in entrepreneurship in its Bachelor
program. In Universiti Putra Malaysia
(UPM), the entrepreneurship course
is offered in its Bachelor of Business
Administration Programme, whilst in
Universiti Malaya (UM), the course is
offered under the Department of Business
Strategy and Policy. Other Higher Education
Institutions in Malaysia generally offer
the entrepreneurship course in the Master
of Busi ness Admi ni st rat i on (MBA)
programmes (Faudziah & Habshah, 2006).
METHODOLOGY
The total respondents in this study is 114
and they consist of third year and final
year law students from Ahmad Ibrahim
Kuliyyah of Laws. The law students have
been chosen because many of them will be
involved in private corporate and companies
which relate to entrepreneurship after they
graduate. In fact, as the number of clients
of frms grew and their experience expands,
many of the lawyers end up opening their
own companiesy. The respondents comprise
38 male students and 76 female students.
Local students represent the majority of
the total respondents (95.6%), while the
international students only cover 4.4% of
the total sample.
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
89 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
The study is based on ae survey
conducted in 2011. The data from the
survey questionnaire is analyzed using SPSS
version 18. It is based on fve hypotheses
namely;
• The law students who have interest to
learn entrepreneurship skills tend to be
entrepreneurs after they graduate.
• The law students who are involved
in entrepreneurial programs either
by IIUM or outside IIUM tend to be
entrepreneurs after they graduate.
• The law students who want to be
entrepreneurs tend to support the
entrepreneurship education taught at
the University.
• The law students who have interest in
entrepreneurial skills tend to support
the entrepreneurship education taught
at the University.
• The law students who are involved
in entrepreneurial programs tend to
support the entrepreneurship education
taught at the University.
THE SURVEY
The study employed a descriptive research
design in which the self-administered
questionnaires were conducted on students
from Ahmad Ibrahim Kuliyyah of Laws,
IIUM between September and October
2011. The data was gathered using the
convenience random sampling where the
questionnaires were distributed during the
end of the class. The students were given
10 to 15 minutes to fll up the survey. The
sample consists of 114 students in which
38 of them were male (33.3%) and 76 were
female (66.7%). They varied from third year
students which is 51.8% (59 students) and
fnal year students, 48.2% (55 students). In
terms of nationality, most of the students
surveyed were locals (95.6%) whilst the
International students represented only
4.4% of the total sample. The data was then
analyzed using the Cross tabulation test.
The questionnaire was adapted mainly
from Pihie (2009) and Pihie and Sani
(2009). However, it has been simplified
because at this preliminary stage, the
objective is just to get the general idea
of the perception and reception of non-
business students particularly law students
on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship
education.
The questionnaire utilized open ended
questions as well as close ended questions
particularly dichotomous and nominal
polytomous type of questions. It was
constructed based on 11 questions which
measured the demographic of students,
t he i nvol vement of st udent s i n t he
entrepreneurial programme, the interest of
students to have careers as entrepreneurs
after graduation, the reception of students to
entrepreneurship education being introduced
in the University, the interest of students
towards learning entrepreneurial skills, and
the student’s preference on the types of
entrepreneurial courses and the techniques
in learning entrepreneurial skills.
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
90 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
THE FINDINGS
It is expected that the students who are
interested to be entrepreneurs will be more
aware about entrepreneurial skills since they
will look for entrepreneurial knowledge
and equip themselves with necessary
entrepreneurial skills before they enter
the real business world. Table 1 indicates
the percentage of students’ interest in
entrepreneurial skills and their interest to be
entrepreneurs after graduation. It is shown
that, from 96 students who are interested
in entrepreneurship skills, 81% of them
are willing to be involved in business after
their graduation. Indeed, for those who have
no interest in entrepreneurship skills, only
11% of them have planned to be involved
in business after they have graduated. This
suggests that the students who have planned
to be entrepreneurs after they graduate
are highly aware about the importance of
acquiring entrepreneurial skills.
The bar chart in fig.1 shows that,
fnancial incentives are the main reasons
for students choosing entrepreneurship as
a career. About 41.2% students believe that
being entrepreneur is the only way they can
gain more income and andthe fastest way
to be rich. However, for some students,
the purpose to be involved in business is
to be self employed (13.2%) where they
can make decisions freely without being
controlled by any authority. Moreover,
family also plays a vital role in shaping the
entrepreneurship interest within the students
themselves (4.4%). Basically, the students
with business oriented families have the
tendency to become entrepreneurs since
TABLE 1
The Percentage of students’ interest in entrepreneurial skills and the interest to be entrepreneurs after
graduation
Want to be Entrepreneurs Refuse to be Entrepreneurs
Interested in Entrepreneurial Skills 78 (81%) 18 (19%)
Not Interested in Entrepreneurial Skills 2 (11%) 16 (89%)
Figure 1: Reasons for choosing entrepreneurship as
career
15.8%
7%
7.9%
3.5%
3.5%
3.5%
4.4%
13.2%
41.2%
Fig.1: Reasons for choosing entrepreneurship as career
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
91 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
they have to continue their family business.
Other than that, there are also students who
perceive a career in entrepreneurship as
an interesting and challenging job through
which they can gain experience, knowledge,
and communication skills (3.3%).
Furthermore, the students awareness
towards entrepreneurship is also determined
through their involvement in entrepreneurship
programs either by university or outside
sources like Persatuan Usahawan Muda
Malaysia (PUMM), Youth Entrepreneur
Society (YES) , Kreative Entrepreneurs
Association Malaysia (KREAM), and
etc. Based on the data in table 2, it shows
that 84% of students who are involved
in entrepreneurship programs and 59%
of students who were never involved in
any entrepreneurship programs have the
interest to pursue their career in business.
Thus, it demonstrates that involvement in
entrepreneurship programmes is not the only
factor that drives students to pursue their
career in business.
Even though the law students are in
favor of being entrepreneurs (70%) as
depicted in table 2, yet, only a few of them
have ever attended the entrepreneurship
programs. The bar chart in fig.2 shows
that the number of students who are not
involved in any entrepreneurship programs
exceeds the number of students who have
joined the programme by 12%. The lack
of involvement of law students may due
to the heavy academic workload that they
have to carry throughout the semester.
For law students, they have to complete
a minimum 151 credit hours (for civil
stream) and a minimum 161 credit hours
(for Shariah stream). The workload is much
higher as compared to the total credit hours
that students in economics, business, and
TABLE 2
Students involvement in entrepreneurship programs and the interest to be entrepreneurs after graduation
Interested to be Entrepreneurs Not Interested to be Entrepreneurs
Involved 42 (84%) 8 (16%)
Not Involved 38 (59%) 26 (41%)
Total 80 (70%) 34 (30%)
Figure 2: Students involvement in entrepreneurship
programs
Fig.2: Students involvement in entrepreneurship programs
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
92 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
ICT have to fulfll (130-140 credit hours).
Besides, the nature of the entrepreneurship
program itself may not suit their interest.
Despite their lack of involvement
in the entrepreneurship programs, most
of them still believe that entrepreneurial
education should be taught at the University..
According to table 3, from a total of 114 law
students, 83% agreed thate entrepreneurship
education be taught at the University while
only 17% of them did not agree. The data in
table 3 also shows that law students highly
support that entrepreneurial education
be taught at the university regardless
of whether they are interested to be an
entrepreneur (89%) or otherwise (71%).
It exhibits their strong reception towards
entrepreneurial education.
Table 4 presents the relationship
between interest in entrepreneurial skills and
the reception of entrepreneurial education.
It shows that students who are interested in
learning entrepreneurial skills (90%) tend
to support that entrepreneurial education
be taught at IIUM. Only 10% of them feel
otherwise.. These students may prefer to
learn business skills on their own or from
other short courses available outside IIUM.
However, among those who have no interest
in acquiring entrepreneurial skills, 50% of
them support thatr entrepreneurial education
be taught in IIUM. It shows their fair
reception towards entrepreneurial education.
Tabl e 5 shows t hat t here i s no
corelation between students’ involvement in
entrepreneurship programs and their support
for entrepreneurial education. This is based
on the fndings whereby 88% of those who
have been involved in entrepreneurship
programs support ent repreneurshi p
education. Surprisingly, 80% of those who
have never been involved in the programs,
give their support towards entrepreneurship
education at IIUM. Perhaps the students
could not attend the entrepreneurship
programs due to limited access and lack of
TABLE 3
Students planning to be entrepreneurs and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Do Not Support The
Entrepreneurial Education
Interested to be entrepreneurs 71 (89%) 9 (11%)
Not Interested to be entrepreneurs 24 (71%) 10 (29%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
TABLE 4
Students interest towards entrepreneurial skills and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Do Not Support The
Entrepreneurial Education
Interested in entrepreneurial skills 86 (90%) 10 (10%)
Not Interested in entrepreneurial skills 9 (50%) 9 (50%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
93 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
publicity. Besides, it may also be due to the
contents and nature of the programmess that
do not suit the interest of students as well
as the timing of the programmes which
may not be compatible with the student’s
schedule.
In order to identify which entrepreneurial
courses are preferred by law students, fve
courses have been offered for them to
choose, namely; how to set up business,
fnancial management, taxation, consumer
behavior, and decision making. They are
allowed to choose more than one course
and as a result, a total of 337 responses
have been received. Based on the bar
chart in Fig.3, the three most preferred
entrepreneurial courses chosen by the law
students are; fnancial management (27%),
how to set up business (23.4%), and decision
making (20.2%). These three courses are
basically the essential knowledge needed to
run any business. The least preferred choice
is consumer behavior which received 14%
responses.
Without good teaching techniques, it is
diffcult for entrepreneurship education to
succeed. Therefore, the questionnaire had
a question related to teaching techniques
and students were asked to identify which
method was the most preferred one by
law students. The techniques included
workshops, running a real business, site
visits, lectures/presentations, interviews with
entrepreneusr, and talks by entrepreneurs.
From 317 total responses received, it was
found that the major techniques preferred
by law students include running a real
business (24.6%) followed by workshops
TABLE 5
Student’s involvement in entrepreneurship programs and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial Education Do Not Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Involved 44 (88%) 6 (12%)
Not Involved 51 (80%) 13 (20%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
Fig.3: Students entrepreneurial courses preferences
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
94 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
(23.7%), as revealed in fig.4. These two
techniques basically have high level of
practicality. Meanwhile, the teaching
technique which is more theory based
such as lectures or presentations is less
preferred by the respondents and garnered
only 8.8 %. This is supported by Keat
et. al.. (2011) who argued that, the main
problem of teacher-centered approach
which is predominantly implemented by
most universities in Malaysia is the lack
of personal entrepreneurial experience by
the trainers/teachers themselves. The lack
of involvement in real business has made
it difficult to relate theory with the real
issues in entrepreneurial matters especially
the ones which relate to the induction of
ventures. Fig.4 also shows that the least
preferred technique is interviews with
entrepreneurs (7.6%).
The five hypotheses were validated
based on hypot hesi s t est i ng of t wo
population proportions. Table 6 summarizes
the computed test statistic values and the
decision that were arrived at with regards to
these fve hypotheses. Except for hypothesis
5 which could be retained at ? = 12%, the
frst four hypotheses were validated based
on the sample evidence at ? = 1%.
TABLE 6
Summary of Decisions on Hypothesis Testing
No. Hypotheses Test statistic
z-value*
Decision
#
1 The law students who have interest to learn
entrepreneurship skills tend to become an entrepreneur
after they graduated
5.968987 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
2 The law students who are involved in entrepreneurial
programs either by IIUM or outside IIUM tend to be
an entrepreneur
2.8518 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
3 The law students who want to be entrepreneurs tend
to support the entrepreneurship education taught at the
University
2.3801 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
4 The law students who have interest on entrepreneurial
skills tend to support the entrepreneurship education
taught at the University
4.1358 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
5 The law students who are involved in entrepreneurial
programs tend to support the entrepreneurship
education taught at the University
1.1821 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
*Test statistic z is computed based on the following formula:
( ) ( )
1 2
1 2
1 1
c c c c
p p
z
p p p p
n n
?
=
? ?
+
#
For hypotheses 1 until 4, the level of signifcance is ? = 1% while for hypothesis 5, the level of
signifcance is ? = 12%(since the p-value for hypothesis 5 is 0.1190)
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
95 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the study showed that the law
students who have interest in acquiring the
entrepreneurial skills as well as those who
are actively involved in entrepreneurial
pr ogr ams ar e i ncl i ned t o become
entrepreneurs after they graduate. Besides,
the proposal to teach entrepreneurship
education at IIUM was well received by the
law students especially those who intend to
become entrepreneurs, those who are willing
to learn entrepreneurial skills, and those who
are involved in entrepreneurial programs.
Th e d i s c u s s i o n s h o ws t h a t
entrepreneurial course should be integrated
into the Kuliyyah of Laws courses as a
subject or as an audit course since the
students are aware of the importance of
entrepreneurship knowledge in their life
based on their business interest upon
graduation. However, there is a lack of
involvement in entrepreneurship programs
by law students. This may be due to the
nature, promotion, and the timing of the
existing entrepreneurial programs.
Therefore, the content and teaching
techniques of the current entrepreneurship
program should be revised and improved to
produce better entrepreneurship programs
in the future. The high quality programs
will produce successful entrepreneurs who
will contribute towards the betterment
of economic wellbeing in the future. In
addition, entrepreneurial education should
be continuously updated to reflect the
current trend of the real business world.
REFERENCES
Ab. Rahman, M. N., Muhammad, N., Abd.Wahab,
D., Abdul Ghani, J., Rajendran Royan, N.
R., & Mohd Ayob, S. A. (2009). Engineering
Students Towards Entrepreneurship. Seminar
Pendidikan Kejuruteraan dan Alam Bina (Peka
‘09), 348-357.
Ariff, M., & Abubakar, S. Y. (2002). Strengthening
entrepreneurship in Malaysia. Malaysian
Economic Outlook: 1st Quarter 2002 Update,
1-22.
Chan, K. L., Selvadurai, S., & Hamid, B. A. (2009).
Malay youth entrepreneurship in Malaysia: An
empirical update. Geografa: Malaysian Journal
of Society and Space, 5(2), 61-68.
Economic Planning Unit, E. P. U. (2006). Ninth
Malaysia Plan 2006-2010. Percetakan Nasional
Malaysia Berhad, Kuala Lumpur.
Figure 4: Students preference on teaching techniques
Fig.4: Students preference on teaching techniques
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
96 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
Faudzi ah, Z. A. , & Habshah, B. ( 2006) .
Entrepreneurship education: The case of
University Utara Malaysia. Retrieved fromhttp://wmssoros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/NR/rdonly
res/3qgu5fvlvg72koxaqvtt3wgcf3j3ut3oommu
2x5i4va7db2wpkuhi22rvtr22k/Resource16.pdf
Fischer, E. M., Reuber, A. R., & Dyke, L. S. (1993).
A theoretical overview and extension of research
on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship. Journal of
Business Venturing, 8(2), 151-168.
Frederick, H. H., Kuratko, D. F., & Hodgetts, R.
M. (2007). Entrepreneurship: theory, process,
practice. Nelson Australia.
Garavan, T. N. , & O’Ci nnei de, B. (1994).
Entrepreneurship Education and Training
Programmes:[Review of the journal A Review
and Evaluation–Part 1]. Journal of European
Industrial Training, 18(8), 3-12.
Gstraunthaler, T., & Hendry, S. (2011). Entrepreneurial
and accounting education through action-based
learning: The Genesis Project. Journal of
Entrepreneurship Education, 14, 125-146.
Heinonen, J., & Poikkijoki, S.-A. (2006). An
ent r epr eneur i al - di r ect ed appr oach t o
entrepreneurship education: mission impossible?
Journal of Management Development, 25 (1),
80-94.
International Islamic University Malaysia. (n.d.).
Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws: Programme.
Retrieved fromhttp://www.iium.edu.my/
aikol/programmes-courses/undergraduate-
programmes/bachelor-law-llb
Ismail, N. A. (2011). Graduates characteristics and
unemployment: A study among Malaysian
graduates. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, 2(16), 94-102.
Jones, C., & English, J. (2004). A contemporary
approach to entrepreneurship education.
Education+ Training, 46(8/9): 416-423.
Keat, O. Y., Selvarajah, C., & Meyer, D. (2011).
Inclination towards entrepreneurship among
university students: An empirical study of
Malaysian university students. International
Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(4),
206-220.
Lautenschläger, A., & Haase, H. (2011). The myth of
entrepreneurship education: Seven arguments
against teaching business creation at universities.
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 14,
147-161.
Lebusa, M. J. (2011, January). Does entrepreneurial
education enhance under-graduate students’
entrepreneurial self-efficacy? A case at one
University of Technology in South Africa.
China-USA Business Review, 10(1), 53-64.
McMullan, W., & Long, W. A. (1987). Entrepreneurship
education in the nineties. Journal of Business
Venturing, 2(3), 261-275.
Othman, N., Othman, N. H., & Ismail, R. (2012).
I mpact of Gl obal i zat i on on Trends i n
Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education
Institutions. Paper presented at the 2012 2nd
International Conference on Economics, Trade
and Development, Singapore.
Pihie, Z. A. L. (2009). Entrepreneurship as a Career
Choice: An Analysis of Entrepreneurial Self-
Effcacy and Intention of University Students.
European Journal of Social Sciences, 9(2),
338-349.
Pihie, Z. A. L., & Sani, A. S. A. (2009). Exploring the
entrepreneurial mindset of students: Implication
for improvement of entrepreneurial learning at
university. The Journal of International Social
Research, 2(8), 340-345.
Shariff, M. N. M., & Saud, M. B. (2009). An Attitude
Approach to the Prediction of Entrepreneurship
on Students at Institution of Higher Learning in
Malaysia. International Journal of Business and
Management, 4(4), 129-135.
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
97 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
Zakaria, S., Yusoff, W. F. W., & Madun, R. H. R.
(2011). Entrepreneurship Education in Malaysia:
Nurturing Entrepreneurial Interest Amongst
Students. Journal of Modern Accounting and
Auditing, 7(6), 615-620.
doc_923646522.pdf
On this particular information clarify legal eagle entrepreneurship education for law students special reference to international.
Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
ISSN: 0128-7702 © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES
Journal homepage:http://www.pertanika.upm.edu.my/
Article history:
Received: 2 August 2013
Accepted: 11 October 2013
ARTICLE INFO
E-mail address:
[email protected] (Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas)
* Corresponding author
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students:
Special Reference to International Islamic University Malaysia
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas
1
*, Herna Muslim
2
and Zarinah Hamid
2
1
Ahmad Ibrahim Kuliyyah of Laws, Civil Law Department, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
In Malaysia, entrepreneurship education in higher learning education is not new.
The government has taken great efforts to transform the country’s economy into a
knowledge-based one and entrepreneurs have been identifed as one of the key elements
to the development of the knowledge economy. Lots of funds have been allocated by the
government to propagate the importance of graduates to become entrepreneurs and less
dependent on employers. For the law graduates in Malaysia, the job opportunities are multi
structured whereby they could either be in the judiciary, corporate and banking sectors or
conduct private practice. In most circumstances, law graduates will be attached to private
practices and this eventually will lead to most of them opening their own legal frms. Despite
the l nature of legal frms, lawyers can not avoid the standard business practices such as
preparing cash fow reports, the business and succession plans and audited account reports.
There are also many lawyers who set up businesses of different natures rather than legal,
such as construction and trading companies. As such, it is highly perceived that business
skills are also important to law undergraduates in preparing them for life after graduation.
One of the ways to do this is through entrepreneurship education. This paper intends to
discuss the perception and reception of law students on entrepreneurship education/skills.
A quantitative research methodology is adopted to identify the level of interest and/or
willingness of law undergraduates at the Faculty of Laws, International Islamic University
Malaysia to learn entrepreneurial skills and to be involved in business once they graduate.
Ke y words : Ent r e pr e ne ur s hi p e duc a t i on,
entrepreneurial skills, law students, Malaysian Higher
Learning Institution
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
84 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
INTRODUCTION
The increasing number of public and private
institutions in Malaysia has stimulated the
graduate population growth. As the number
of graduates exceeds the market demand,
the unemployment rate of fresh graduates
also increase. This is due to the lack of
job opportunities available (Ismail, 2011).
Thus, entrepreneurship seems to be one
of the solutions to reduce the dependency
of graduates to be employed. In order to
become entrepreneurs, the students need
entrepreneurship education to acquire the
entrepreneurial skills especially on how to
launch a new venture (Lebusa, 2011).
In the U.S., entrepreneurship education
has been introduced since 1938 with the
development of applied education in
entrepreneurship. The “small business or
entrepreneurship development” course was
offered by the University of Illinois prior to
1953 while the University of South Dakota
offered the course in 1954. The frst course in
entrepreneurship was introduced by Dwight
Baumann, an engineering professor at MIT in
1958. By the end of 1960s, entrepreneurship
education has been disseminated throughout
the world (McMullan and Long, 1987).
It was reported that, approximately 25
higher learning institutions in the U.S.
were offering entrepreneurship courses
by 1970, while in 1980, the number
tremendously increased to more than 150
institutions (McMullan and Long, 1987;
Lautenschläger and Haase, 2011). In 1985,
the demand for entrepreneurship education
had increased continuously, where there
were 245 institutions of higher education
with 253 schools offering entrepreneurship
courses found in U.S. (McMullan and Long,
1987). By early 1990s, the importance of
entrepreneurship education became highly
significant in the European, Asian, and
African institutions (Frederick et. al.., 2007;
Zakaria et. al.., 2011).
The awareness on the importance of
entrepreneurial education has triggered
policy initiatives like Higher Education
Innovation Funds (HEIF), Cambridge-
Massachusetts Initiative (CMI), Higher
Educat i on Academy (HEA) Subj ect
Centres, National Council for Graduate
Entrepreneurship (NCGE), Enterprise
Insight (EI), and so on to increase the number
of institutions offering entrepreneurship
programs (Gstraunthaler and Hendry, 2011).
Furthermore, the research in this feld also
has been developed with at least 45 refereed
academic journals made available which are
related to enterprise and entrepreneurship.
In fact, entrepreneurial education has
also triggered the interest of non-business
institutions whereby, new kinds of ‘e-ship’
like music entrepreneurship, nutrition
entrepreneurship, statistics entrepreneurship,
nursing entrepreneurship, and engineering
entrepreneurship have been launched by
campuses outside the Business schools
(Frederick et. al.., 2007).
In Malaysia, the development of
entrepreneurship education can be traced
to the pre-independence period. During
the colonialisation of British in Malaya,
the economic activity was segregated
according to racial lines, where the Indian
migrant workers worked in the rubber
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
85 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
plantation, Chinese in tin mines with some
in trading, and Malays in the low income
agricultural sector. This was to facilitate
the administrative operation of the British.
Upon independence, Malays as Bumiputersa
were given “special rights” in the form of
religion, economics, and politics in order
to upgrade their economic status and
subsequently achieve an equitable society.
However, these “special rights” did not
manage to reduce the economic inequality
between the Malays and other races mainly
the Chinese, so the New Economic Policy
(NEP) was introduced in 1970. The NEP was
mainly instituted with three main objectives;
to increase the ownership and participation
of the Bumiputeras in the corporate sector,
to increase participation of Bumiputeras
in high-income occupations, and to reduce
the income gap as well as alleviate poverty
(Ariff and Yanti, 2002).
The government also established a
Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial
Community (BCIC) in order to produce
more entrepreneurs and professionals among
Bumiputeras (Ariff and Yanti, 2002; Ninth
Malaysia Plan, 2006). In the last decade
of the 1990s, various entrepreneurship
programmes and initiatives such as the
National Development Policy (1990-
2000), Vision 2020 and the New Economic
Model (NEM) which are not confned to
Bumiputeras only have been implemented
by Malaysian government in order to train
and develop a self reliant nation to face
the challenges brought on by globalization
and the uncertain economic environment
(Othman et. al.., 2012). This is an important
agenda as globalization has intensifed the
economic competitiveness among countries
and slowly transformed the nation towards
the knowledge economy (Zakaria et. al..,
2011).
The transformation to knowledge
economy is needful for Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) to play an important role
in providing entrepreneurship education
for the development of entrepreneurial
attitudes and skills among the youths
(Zakaria et. al., 2011; Keat et. al., 2011).
The participation of the younger generation
in entrepreneurship could encourage them to
become job creators rather than job seekers
upon their graduation (Zakaria et.al., 2011
as cited in Jesselyn and Michell, 2006). In
fact, According to Chan et.al., (2009), in the
case of Malaysia, the youths who choose
entrepreneurship careers tend to survive
unemployment during the economic crisis.
As such, it is perceived that entrepreneurship
courses should not be taught to business
students only. This is due to the fact that,
many great ideas are developed by those
from non-business majors (Frederick et.
al.., 2007).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
Accordi ng t o Jones et . al . . (2004),
entrepreneurial education refers “to the
process of providing individuals with the
ability to recognize commercial opportunities
and the insight, self-esteem, knowledge and
skills to act on them” (p.146). Referring
to McMullan and Long (1987); Garavan
and O’Cinneide (1994), one of the major
problems of entrepreneurship education is
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
86 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
the lack of standardization in the program
syllabus. The content of entrepreneurship
education and program varies based on the
personal preference of the trainer on the
defnition and scope of the entrepreneurship.
The variation basically stems from the lack
of consensus in defining the meaning of
‘entrepreneur’. Moreover, Lautenschläger
and Haase (2011) highlighted that the
disparity also appears in terms of objectives,
content, pedagogy as well as supply and
expectation of entrepreneurial education
itself.
Lautenschläger and Haase (2011)
emphasize the economic and social goal
of the entrepreneurship education because
these objectives will refect the teaching
method and structure of entrepreneurship
courses. According to Jones and English
(2004), the curriculum should fulfll two
objectives, namely personal and enterprise
development objectives. The personal
development objectives basically focus
on the nurturing of entrepreneurial skills
and perspective of students, whereby the
students have to compare the ideal concept
of an entrepreneur with the skills and
attitudes that they possess. Meanwhile, the
enterprise development is focusing on how
to identify the opportunity, the process of
venturing into new businesses (developing
strategy, creating business plan, looking for
capital, etc), as well as harvesting strategy.
More importantly, these objectives need
to be operated simultaneusly. On the other
hand, Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) have
identifed three objectives that should be part
of the entrepreneurial curriculum, namely;
learn to understand entrepreneurship, learn
to become entrepreneurial, and learn to
become an entrepreneur. Lebusa (2011)
identifed two major objectives from ffteen
leading U.S. entrepreneurship programs,
which are to increase the student’s awareness
and understanding of entrepreneurship as a
process as well as a career option. From
these objectives, Lebusa (2011) as cited
in Jamieson (1984) has proposed a three-
category framework:
1. Education about enterprise: Deals
mostly with awareness creation, and
has the specifc objective of educating
students on various aspects of setting
up and running a business mostly from
a theoretical perspective.
2. Education for enterprise: Deals
more with the preparation of aspiring
entrepreneurs for a career in self-
employment with the specifc objective
of encouraging participants to set-up
and run their own business.
3. Education in enterprise: Deals
mainly with management training for
established entrepreneurs and focuses
on ensuring the growth and future
development of the business.
The above discussion highlighs that one
of the needs of entrepreneurship education
is for the Higher Education Institutions
to develop the entrepreneurial capacities
and mindsets of students through the
programs that can develop and sharpen
their skills of identifying and exploiting
opportunities as well as training them
to set up a businesses and manage their
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
87 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
growth. The entrepreneurial skills should
nurture the student’s ability to solve the
problem innovatively, instill creativity and
self-confdence, as well as encourage high
readiness for changes (Lebusa, 2011).
The success of entrepreneurial education
is highly dependent on the teaching
technique applied in the entrepreneurship
programmes. Frederick et. al.. (2007)
show discontentment towards the teaching
techniques and the evaluation process of
the entrepreneurship course which have
been practiced by the typical university-
based business schools. The business
schools are seen only eaching students how
to be employed and not to be employers
(Frederick et. al.., 2007) because too
much attention is given to qualitative and
corporate techniques (Jones and English,
2004) rather than human beings as a
whole (Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006).
According to Heinonen and Poikkijoki
(2006), the concentration towards human
beings as a whole should be included in
the entrepreneurship education because
it involves the integration of knowledge
(science), skills, and behaviour (art).
Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) and
Shariff et. al.. (2011) urge educators to apply
the learning enterprises approach which
is hands-on experience or action based
oriented as their teaching methodology and
to pay special attention to incorporating
experience, skill and knowledge instead
of just the conventional approach which
is teacher-centered learning. Keat et. al..
(2011) argued that, the main problem
of the teacher-centered approach which
is predominantly implemented by most
universities in Malaysia is the lack of
personal entrepreneurial experience of the
entrepreneurship lecturers themselves. The
lack of involvement in real business has
made it diffcult for them to relate theory
with real issues in entrepreneurial matters
especially those related to the induction of
ventures. Thus, action-based methods are
believed to encourage problem solving,
creativity, innovation (Jones and English,
2004; Lautenschläger and Haase, 2011) and
are considered very much helpful in peer
evaluation (Jones and English, 2004). In
fact, students can get experientiall learning
only when they apply those concepts like
leadership, management, and accounting
into real-life practice. Besides, the trial
and error during this process will help
them clearly understand the concept in
the classroom (Gstraunthaler and Hendry,
2011).
Heinonen and Poikkijoki (2006) also
promote the entrepreneurial-directed
approach as one of the teaching techniques
i n ent r epr eneur i al educat i on. Thi s
technique refers to the co-learning between
teachers and students, where “the student
has ownership of her or his learning
and the teacher acts as a supporter and
facilitator of the process” (Heinonen and
Poikkikoji, 2006, p.85). According to
them, the integration of the entrepreneurial
process, experiential-learning process and
entrepreneurial-directed approach enable the
learning process of entrepreneurial behavior
to be conducted in the class setting. In fact,
based on Pihie and Sani’s (2009) research, it
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
88 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
has been found that, running a real business,
visit to business locations, and interviews
with entrepreneurs are the three techniques
in entrepreneurial directed approach which
are most preferred by students.
Other than that, the entrepreneurial
internship programme also could stimulate
the intention of students towards becoming
an entrepreneur (Keat et. al.., 2011). The
techniques and programmes are seen to
be effective as they expose students to the
nature and practice of the real business
industry. In addition, the skills and the high
level of self effcacy from the experience
of those activities will motivate students
to start their own business (Pihie and Sani,
2009).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
IN MALAYSIAN HIGHER
LEARNING INSTITUTION
In the Multi Media University (MMU),
to nurture the entrepreneurship attitude
and ski l l s among t he st udent s, t he
entrepreneurship course is offered by the
programme called Bachelor of Multimedia
(Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
In fact, all MMU students regardless of
their course have to take the “Introduction
to Cyberpreneurship” subject. Universiti
Utara Malaysia (UUM) also offers courses
to motivate students towards becoming
ent repreneurs, namel y; t he St udent
Enterprise Program (SEP), Bachelor of
Entrepreneurship (a degree program), Basic
Entrepreneurship Course and Co-Curricular
Entrepreneurship activities (Faudziah and
Habshah, 2006). The entrepreneurship
programme at UUM is quite different
because it merges several entrepreneurship
processes into one programme. The
entrepreneurship processes include “the
environmental infuences and the processes
of planning, researching, and developing
entrepreneurial education and training”
(Zakaria et. al.., 2011). Similar to UUM,
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, also offers a
degree in entrepreneurship in its Bachelor
program. In Universiti Putra Malaysia
(UPM), the entrepreneurship course
is offered in its Bachelor of Business
Administration Programme, whilst in
Universiti Malaya (UM), the course is
offered under the Department of Business
Strategy and Policy. Other Higher Education
Institutions in Malaysia generally offer
the entrepreneurship course in the Master
of Busi ness Admi ni st rat i on (MBA)
programmes (Faudziah & Habshah, 2006).
METHODOLOGY
The total respondents in this study is 114
and they consist of third year and final
year law students from Ahmad Ibrahim
Kuliyyah of Laws. The law students have
been chosen because many of them will be
involved in private corporate and companies
which relate to entrepreneurship after they
graduate. In fact, as the number of clients
of frms grew and their experience expands,
many of the lawyers end up opening their
own companiesy. The respondents comprise
38 male students and 76 female students.
Local students represent the majority of
the total respondents (95.6%), while the
international students only cover 4.4% of
the total sample.
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
89 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
The study is based on ae survey
conducted in 2011. The data from the
survey questionnaire is analyzed using SPSS
version 18. It is based on fve hypotheses
namely;
• The law students who have interest to
learn entrepreneurship skills tend to be
entrepreneurs after they graduate.
• The law students who are involved
in entrepreneurial programs either
by IIUM or outside IIUM tend to be
entrepreneurs after they graduate.
• The law students who want to be
entrepreneurs tend to support the
entrepreneurship education taught at
the University.
• The law students who have interest in
entrepreneurial skills tend to support
the entrepreneurship education taught
at the University.
• The law students who are involved
in entrepreneurial programs tend to
support the entrepreneurship education
taught at the University.
THE SURVEY
The study employed a descriptive research
design in which the self-administered
questionnaires were conducted on students
from Ahmad Ibrahim Kuliyyah of Laws,
IIUM between September and October
2011. The data was gathered using the
convenience random sampling where the
questionnaires were distributed during the
end of the class. The students were given
10 to 15 minutes to fll up the survey. The
sample consists of 114 students in which
38 of them were male (33.3%) and 76 were
female (66.7%). They varied from third year
students which is 51.8% (59 students) and
fnal year students, 48.2% (55 students). In
terms of nationality, most of the students
surveyed were locals (95.6%) whilst the
International students represented only
4.4% of the total sample. The data was then
analyzed using the Cross tabulation test.
The questionnaire was adapted mainly
from Pihie (2009) and Pihie and Sani
(2009). However, it has been simplified
because at this preliminary stage, the
objective is just to get the general idea
of the perception and reception of non-
business students particularly law students
on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship
education.
The questionnaire utilized open ended
questions as well as close ended questions
particularly dichotomous and nominal
polytomous type of questions. It was
constructed based on 11 questions which
measured the demographic of students,
t he i nvol vement of st udent s i n t he
entrepreneurial programme, the interest of
students to have careers as entrepreneurs
after graduation, the reception of students to
entrepreneurship education being introduced
in the University, the interest of students
towards learning entrepreneurial skills, and
the student’s preference on the types of
entrepreneurial courses and the techniques
in learning entrepreneurial skills.
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
90 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
THE FINDINGS
It is expected that the students who are
interested to be entrepreneurs will be more
aware about entrepreneurial skills since they
will look for entrepreneurial knowledge
and equip themselves with necessary
entrepreneurial skills before they enter
the real business world. Table 1 indicates
the percentage of students’ interest in
entrepreneurial skills and their interest to be
entrepreneurs after graduation. It is shown
that, from 96 students who are interested
in entrepreneurship skills, 81% of them
are willing to be involved in business after
their graduation. Indeed, for those who have
no interest in entrepreneurship skills, only
11% of them have planned to be involved
in business after they have graduated. This
suggests that the students who have planned
to be entrepreneurs after they graduate
are highly aware about the importance of
acquiring entrepreneurial skills.
The bar chart in fig.1 shows that,
fnancial incentives are the main reasons
for students choosing entrepreneurship as
a career. About 41.2% students believe that
being entrepreneur is the only way they can
gain more income and andthe fastest way
to be rich. However, for some students,
the purpose to be involved in business is
to be self employed (13.2%) where they
can make decisions freely without being
controlled by any authority. Moreover,
family also plays a vital role in shaping the
entrepreneurship interest within the students
themselves (4.4%). Basically, the students
with business oriented families have the
tendency to become entrepreneurs since
TABLE 1
The Percentage of students’ interest in entrepreneurial skills and the interest to be entrepreneurs after
graduation
Want to be Entrepreneurs Refuse to be Entrepreneurs
Interested in Entrepreneurial Skills 78 (81%) 18 (19%)
Not Interested in Entrepreneurial Skills 2 (11%) 16 (89%)
Figure 1: Reasons for choosing entrepreneurship as
career
15.8%
7%
7.9%
3.5%
3.5%
3.5%
4.4%
13.2%
41.2%
Fig.1: Reasons for choosing entrepreneurship as career
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
91 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
they have to continue their family business.
Other than that, there are also students who
perceive a career in entrepreneurship as
an interesting and challenging job through
which they can gain experience, knowledge,
and communication skills (3.3%).
Furthermore, the students awareness
towards entrepreneurship is also determined
through their involvement in entrepreneurship
programs either by university or outside
sources like Persatuan Usahawan Muda
Malaysia (PUMM), Youth Entrepreneur
Society (YES) , Kreative Entrepreneurs
Association Malaysia (KREAM), and
etc. Based on the data in table 2, it shows
that 84% of students who are involved
in entrepreneurship programs and 59%
of students who were never involved in
any entrepreneurship programs have the
interest to pursue their career in business.
Thus, it demonstrates that involvement in
entrepreneurship programmes is not the only
factor that drives students to pursue their
career in business.
Even though the law students are in
favor of being entrepreneurs (70%) as
depicted in table 2, yet, only a few of them
have ever attended the entrepreneurship
programs. The bar chart in fig.2 shows
that the number of students who are not
involved in any entrepreneurship programs
exceeds the number of students who have
joined the programme by 12%. The lack
of involvement of law students may due
to the heavy academic workload that they
have to carry throughout the semester.
For law students, they have to complete
a minimum 151 credit hours (for civil
stream) and a minimum 161 credit hours
(for Shariah stream). The workload is much
higher as compared to the total credit hours
that students in economics, business, and
TABLE 2
Students involvement in entrepreneurship programs and the interest to be entrepreneurs after graduation
Interested to be Entrepreneurs Not Interested to be Entrepreneurs
Involved 42 (84%) 8 (16%)
Not Involved 38 (59%) 26 (41%)
Total 80 (70%) 34 (30%)
Figure 2: Students involvement in entrepreneurship
programs
Fig.2: Students involvement in entrepreneurship programs
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
92 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
ICT have to fulfll (130-140 credit hours).
Besides, the nature of the entrepreneurship
program itself may not suit their interest.
Despite their lack of involvement
in the entrepreneurship programs, most
of them still believe that entrepreneurial
education should be taught at the University..
According to table 3, from a total of 114 law
students, 83% agreed thate entrepreneurship
education be taught at the University while
only 17% of them did not agree. The data in
table 3 also shows that law students highly
support that entrepreneurial education
be taught at the university regardless
of whether they are interested to be an
entrepreneur (89%) or otherwise (71%).
It exhibits their strong reception towards
entrepreneurial education.
Table 4 presents the relationship
between interest in entrepreneurial skills and
the reception of entrepreneurial education.
It shows that students who are interested in
learning entrepreneurial skills (90%) tend
to support that entrepreneurial education
be taught at IIUM. Only 10% of them feel
otherwise.. These students may prefer to
learn business skills on their own or from
other short courses available outside IIUM.
However, among those who have no interest
in acquiring entrepreneurial skills, 50% of
them support thatr entrepreneurial education
be taught in IIUM. It shows their fair
reception towards entrepreneurial education.
Tabl e 5 shows t hat t here i s no
corelation between students’ involvement in
entrepreneurship programs and their support
for entrepreneurial education. This is based
on the fndings whereby 88% of those who
have been involved in entrepreneurship
programs support ent repreneurshi p
education. Surprisingly, 80% of those who
have never been involved in the programs,
give their support towards entrepreneurship
education at IIUM. Perhaps the students
could not attend the entrepreneurship
programs due to limited access and lack of
TABLE 3
Students planning to be entrepreneurs and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Do Not Support The
Entrepreneurial Education
Interested to be entrepreneurs 71 (89%) 9 (11%)
Not Interested to be entrepreneurs 24 (71%) 10 (29%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
TABLE 4
Students interest towards entrepreneurial skills and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Do Not Support The
Entrepreneurial Education
Interested in entrepreneurial skills 86 (90%) 10 (10%)
Not Interested in entrepreneurial skills 9 (50%) 9 (50%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
93 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
publicity. Besides, it may also be due to the
contents and nature of the programmess that
do not suit the interest of students as well
as the timing of the programmes which
may not be compatible with the student’s
schedule.
In order to identify which entrepreneurial
courses are preferred by law students, fve
courses have been offered for them to
choose, namely; how to set up business,
fnancial management, taxation, consumer
behavior, and decision making. They are
allowed to choose more than one course
and as a result, a total of 337 responses
have been received. Based on the bar
chart in Fig.3, the three most preferred
entrepreneurial courses chosen by the law
students are; fnancial management (27%),
how to set up business (23.4%), and decision
making (20.2%). These three courses are
basically the essential knowledge needed to
run any business. The least preferred choice
is consumer behavior which received 14%
responses.
Without good teaching techniques, it is
diffcult for entrepreneurship education to
succeed. Therefore, the questionnaire had
a question related to teaching techniques
and students were asked to identify which
method was the most preferred one by
law students. The techniques included
workshops, running a real business, site
visits, lectures/presentations, interviews with
entrepreneusr, and talks by entrepreneurs.
From 317 total responses received, it was
found that the major techniques preferred
by law students include running a real
business (24.6%) followed by workshops
TABLE 5
Student’s involvement in entrepreneurship programs and their support towards entrepreneurial education
Support The Entrepreneurial Education Do Not Support The Entrepreneurial
Education
Involved 44 (88%) 6 (12%)
Not Involved 51 (80%) 13 (20%)
Total 95 (83%) 19 (17%)
Fig.3: Students entrepreneurial courses preferences
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
94 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
(23.7%), as revealed in fig.4. These two
techniques basically have high level of
practicality. Meanwhile, the teaching
technique which is more theory based
such as lectures or presentations is less
preferred by the respondents and garnered
only 8.8 %. This is supported by Keat
et. al.. (2011) who argued that, the main
problem of teacher-centered approach
which is predominantly implemented by
most universities in Malaysia is the lack
of personal entrepreneurial experience by
the trainers/teachers themselves. The lack
of involvement in real business has made
it difficult to relate theory with the real
issues in entrepreneurial matters especially
the ones which relate to the induction of
ventures. Fig.4 also shows that the least
preferred technique is interviews with
entrepreneurs (7.6%).
The five hypotheses were validated
based on hypot hesi s t est i ng of t wo
population proportions. Table 6 summarizes
the computed test statistic values and the
decision that were arrived at with regards to
these fve hypotheses. Except for hypothesis
5 which could be retained at ? = 12%, the
frst four hypotheses were validated based
on the sample evidence at ? = 1%.
TABLE 6
Summary of Decisions on Hypothesis Testing
No. Hypotheses Test statistic
z-value*
Decision
#
1 The law students who have interest to learn
entrepreneurship skills tend to become an entrepreneur
after they graduated
5.968987 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
2 The law students who are involved in entrepreneurial
programs either by IIUM or outside IIUM tend to be
an entrepreneur
2.8518 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
3 The law students who want to be entrepreneurs tend
to support the entrepreneurship education taught at the
University
2.3801 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
4 The law students who have interest on entrepreneurial
skills tend to support the entrepreneurship education
taught at the University
4.1358 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
5 The law students who are involved in entrepreneurial
programs tend to support the entrepreneurship
education taught at the University
1.1821 Based on sample
evidence, this
hypothesis is validated
*Test statistic z is computed based on the following formula:
( ) ( )
1 2
1 2
1 1
c c c c
p p
z
p p p p
n n
?
=
? ?
+
#
For hypotheses 1 until 4, the level of signifcance is ? = 1% while for hypothesis 5, the level of
signifcance is ? = 12%(since the p-value for hypothesis 5 is 0.1190)
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
95 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the study showed that the law
students who have interest in acquiring the
entrepreneurial skills as well as those who
are actively involved in entrepreneurial
pr ogr ams ar e i ncl i ned t o become
entrepreneurs after they graduate. Besides,
the proposal to teach entrepreneurship
education at IIUM was well received by the
law students especially those who intend to
become entrepreneurs, those who are willing
to learn entrepreneurial skills, and those who
are involved in entrepreneurial programs.
Th e d i s c u s s i o n s h o ws t h a t
entrepreneurial course should be integrated
into the Kuliyyah of Laws courses as a
subject or as an audit course since the
students are aware of the importance of
entrepreneurship knowledge in their life
based on their business interest upon
graduation. However, there is a lack of
involvement in entrepreneurship programs
by law students. This may be due to the
nature, promotion, and the timing of the
existing entrepreneurial programs.
Therefore, the content and teaching
techniques of the current entrepreneurship
program should be revised and improved to
produce better entrepreneurship programs
in the future. The high quality programs
will produce successful entrepreneurs who
will contribute towards the betterment
of economic wellbeing in the future. In
addition, entrepreneurial education should
be continuously updated to reflect the
current trend of the real business world.
REFERENCES
Ab. Rahman, M. N., Muhammad, N., Abd.Wahab,
D., Abdul Ghani, J., Rajendran Royan, N.
R., & Mohd Ayob, S. A. (2009). Engineering
Students Towards Entrepreneurship. Seminar
Pendidikan Kejuruteraan dan Alam Bina (Peka
‘09), 348-357.
Ariff, M., & Abubakar, S. Y. (2002). Strengthening
entrepreneurship in Malaysia. Malaysian
Economic Outlook: 1st Quarter 2002 Update,
1-22.
Chan, K. L., Selvadurai, S., & Hamid, B. A. (2009).
Malay youth entrepreneurship in Malaysia: An
empirical update. Geografa: Malaysian Journal
of Society and Space, 5(2), 61-68.
Economic Planning Unit, E. P. U. (2006). Ninth
Malaysia Plan 2006-2010. Percetakan Nasional
Malaysia Berhad, Kuala Lumpur.
Figure 4: Students preference on teaching techniques
Fig.4: Students preference on teaching techniques
Zuhairah Ariff Abd Ghadas, Herna Muslim and Zarinah Hamid
96 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
Faudzi ah, Z. A. , & Habshah, B. ( 2006) .
Entrepreneurship education: The case of
University Utara Malaysia. Retrieved fromhttp://wmssoros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/NR/rdonly
res/3qgu5fvlvg72koxaqvtt3wgcf3j3ut3oommu
2x5i4va7db2wpkuhi22rvtr22k/Resource16.pdf
Fischer, E. M., Reuber, A. R., & Dyke, L. S. (1993).
A theoretical overview and extension of research
on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship. Journal of
Business Venturing, 8(2), 151-168.
Frederick, H. H., Kuratko, D. F., & Hodgetts, R.
M. (2007). Entrepreneurship: theory, process,
practice. Nelson Australia.
Garavan, T. N. , & O’Ci nnei de, B. (1994).
Entrepreneurship Education and Training
Programmes:[Review of the journal A Review
and Evaluation–Part 1]. Journal of European
Industrial Training, 18(8), 3-12.
Gstraunthaler, T., & Hendry, S. (2011). Entrepreneurial
and accounting education through action-based
learning: The Genesis Project. Journal of
Entrepreneurship Education, 14, 125-146.
Heinonen, J., & Poikkijoki, S.-A. (2006). An
ent r epr eneur i al - di r ect ed appr oach t o
entrepreneurship education: mission impossible?
Journal of Management Development, 25 (1),
80-94.
International Islamic University Malaysia. (n.d.).
Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws: Programme.
Retrieved fromhttp://www.iium.edu.my/
aikol/programmes-courses/undergraduate-
programmes/bachelor-law-llb
Ismail, N. A. (2011). Graduates characteristics and
unemployment: A study among Malaysian
graduates. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, 2(16), 94-102.
Jones, C., & English, J. (2004). A contemporary
approach to entrepreneurship education.
Education+ Training, 46(8/9): 416-423.
Keat, O. Y., Selvarajah, C., & Meyer, D. (2011).
Inclination towards entrepreneurship among
university students: An empirical study of
Malaysian university students. International
Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(4),
206-220.
Lautenschläger, A., & Haase, H. (2011). The myth of
entrepreneurship education: Seven arguments
against teaching business creation at universities.
Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 14,
147-161.
Lebusa, M. J. (2011, January). Does entrepreneurial
education enhance under-graduate students’
entrepreneurial self-efficacy? A case at one
University of Technology in South Africa.
China-USA Business Review, 10(1), 53-64.
McMullan, W., & Long, W. A. (1987). Entrepreneurship
education in the nineties. Journal of Business
Venturing, 2(3), 261-275.
Othman, N., Othman, N. H., & Ismail, R. (2012).
I mpact of Gl obal i zat i on on Trends i n
Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education
Institutions. Paper presented at the 2012 2nd
International Conference on Economics, Trade
and Development, Singapore.
Pihie, Z. A. L. (2009). Entrepreneurship as a Career
Choice: An Analysis of Entrepreneurial Self-
Effcacy and Intention of University Students.
European Journal of Social Sciences, 9(2),
338-349.
Pihie, Z. A. L., & Sani, A. S. A. (2009). Exploring the
entrepreneurial mindset of students: Implication
for improvement of entrepreneurial learning at
university. The Journal of International Social
Research, 2(8), 340-345.
Shariff, M. N. M., & Saud, M. B. (2009). An Attitude
Approach to the Prediction of Entrepreneurship
on Students at Institution of Higher Learning in
Malaysia. International Journal of Business and
Management, 4(4), 129-135.
“Legal Eagle” Entrepreneurship Education for Law Students
97 Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 22 (S): 83 - 98 (2014)
Zakaria, S., Yusoff, W. F. W., & Madun, R. H. R.
(2011). Entrepreneurship Education in Malaysia:
Nurturing Entrepreneurial Interest Amongst
Students. Journal of Modern Accounting and
Auditing, 7(6), 615-620.
doc_923646522.pdf