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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential
in the late 1990s and the majority of these were primarily linked to business
schools. Entrepreneurship learning is still a relatively new phenomenon in many
European countries, particularly in Eastern European. A report by the OECD
commenting on entrepreneurship education in Europe, noted that,
‘entrepreneurship education is still in its infancy’ (Potter, 2008).
Over the past decade, nevertheless, there has been an exponential rise in
the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) offering entrepreneurial
learning opportunities. As Wilson (2004) identifies, out of the 70 (approx.)
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entrepreneurship centres ( ) in Europe, the majority were established between
2000 and 2005. In Germany, for example, the number of chairs in
entrepreneurship rose from 1 in 1998 to 58 in 2008 (Achleitner et al., 2007;
European Commission, 2008a). Similarly, entrepreneurship education has
significantly grown between 2005 and 2008 in Ireland; some 26 HEIs deliver
approximately 400 modules relating to entrepreneurship and a further 22 Centres
for Enterprise and/or Innovation are also involved in such activities (Cooney and
Murray, 2008). In more general terms, the European Commission (DG Enterprise
and Industry) study confirmed the position of Germany and the UK as strong
performers in entrepreneurship education, with the situation being much weaker
in countries like Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia (European Commission,
2008a).
Significant for this study is that more than half of Europe’s HE students do
not have access to entrepreneurship education, indicating that there is scope to
extend it further within HEIs across Europe. The study states that, despite the
growing number of initiatives on entrepreneurship in Europe, more than half of
Europe’s students in HEIs still do not have access to entrepreneurship education.
This means that approximately 11 out of the 21 million HE students in Europe do
not have the opportunity to engage in curricular or extra-curricular activities in this
field. The same survey suggested that in those institutions where
entrepreneurship education is available, approximately half of the students were
engaged in some kind of entrepreneurial education activity. This implies that
approximately five million students in Europe are engaged in entrepreneurship
education.
Interviews carried out for this study with national entrepreneurship experts
revealed that while some HE qualifications in entrepreneurship are available in
most European countries, the quantity and availability of these qualifications
varies widely between countries. For example, Romania only has two degrees
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( ) For the purpose of that study entrepreneurship centres were defined as the centres offering
dedicated entrepreneurship research, teaching programmes or other activities (i.e. not student
or alumni groups, etc.).
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