Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

For many years, it has been the general view that entrepreneurs are simply born that way – that entrepreneurship is innate and therefore cannot be taught (or learned), and is therefore a subject unsuited to higher education. The logic seemed to follow: an entrepreneur is just naturally an entrepreneur, and studying entrepreneurship, therefore, is a meaningless enterprise. Borrowing Nike’s slogan, entrepreneurs just do it.

But in recent years, a complete reversal of thinking in higher education has occurred. Indeed, entrepreneurs, it is claimed, are made, not born. In other words, entrepreneurship can be learned. Subsequently, institutions of higher education, in most countries around the world, have embraced the teaching and learning of entrepreneurship with fervour, as demonstrated by the growth of entrepreneurship centres, new venture incubators, and business plan competitions on college and university campuses.

Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship in Higher Education embraces this if to how reversal, by exploring entrepreneurship activities at different universities around the world from three primary perspectives: policy, practice, and mindset. Its twelve chapters demonstrate that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ model for teaching and learning entrepreneurship in higher education. Despite their differences, however, the twelve also share a common desire to develop and nurture entrepreneurship, and will inspire anyone with an interest in teaching and learning entrepreneurship in higher education.

About the editors: John Branch is Academic Director of the part-time MBA programmes and Assistant Clinical Professor of Business Administration at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and Faculty Associate at the Center for Russian, East European, & European Studies, both of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, U.S.A. Anne Hørsted is Adjunct Professor at Syddansk Universitet, Senior Consultant at cph:learning in Denmark, and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Learning in Higher Education. Professor Dr. Claus Nygaard is Executive Director of LiHE, and Executive Director of cph:learning and the Steelcase Active Learning Centre in Copenhagen.