Australian universities are experiencing a mini boom in entrepreneurship education, according to a new study.
La Trobe Business School Professor of Entrepreneurship Alex Maritz and entrepreneurship lecturer Dr Quan Nguyen’s research paper, Boom or bust? Embedding entrepreneurship in education in Australia,co-authored with University of Technology Sydney’s Martin Bliemel, evaluates entrepreneurship education in Australia and how it is embedded in the country’s forty higher education institutions.
“The aim of the study was to provide an overview of entrepreneurship education at Universities in Australia and it is promising to see a moderate boom, albeit marginally down on global transformational initiatives,” Professor Maritz said.
The paper, published in Education and Training, includes case studies of how some universities embed entrepreneurship.
At La Trobe, this includes the introduction of Entrepreneurship Essentials, where every university degree requires entrepreneurship content and outcomes. This has resulted in significant subject development in multiple disciplines such as health sciences, engineering, social sciences and law.
La Trobe Business School has also introduced a Chair in Entrepreneurship, a Masters of Entrepreneurship, a Business School-wide compulsory undergraduate entrepreneurship subject and a suite of online entrepreneurship courses and subjects.
Multi-disciplinary programs have also been developed, such as an entrepreneurship specialisation in the Master of Business Information Systems.
The La Trobe Accelerator, an award-winning joint initiative between Deakin and Federation
Universities and LaunchVic, provides nascent entrepreneurs across Victoria with the opportunity to enhance their entrepreneurial skills to launch successful start-ups.
“La Trobe University has made great strides to embrace entrepreneurship education and associated ecosystems,” Professor Maritz said.
