Towards a Comprehensive Policy

on Entrepreneurship Education
in the European Higher Education
n

Mihai Korka
Academy of Economic Studies and Group of Applied Economics, Bucharest

Olav Spilling
Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo

Abstract. The paper discusses policy issues related to entrepreneurship

education in higher education and how entrepreneurship education may be
related to the science-industry link. The first part of the paper is dedicated to
the rationale for fostering entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial function
in the economy of a given coutry or region. In a second part, the authors
comment European events and policy documents on entrepreneurship education in the last tewnty years. The most significant drawback is that a specific
policy targeting the explicit role of universities in the provision of entrepreneurship education is lacking and that there is a huge interest and potential to
its future development. In this context, the authors suggest in the last part of
the article strategic and operational measures as parts of a comprehensive
policy on entrepreneurship education in the European higher education.

Key words: entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial function; science-industry link; education policy for entrepreneurship education.

JEL Codes: A22, M13, O15.

REL Codes: 4B, 4D.

Theoretical and Applied Economics

Introduction
The purpose of this paper(1) is to discuss
policy issues related to the provision of
entrepreneurship education (EE) by higher
education institutions (HEIs). While during the
last decade there has been a significant
development of entrepreneurship education in
general, the policy discussion has addressed
to a little extent issues specific to the role of
higher education in the provision of EE.
Based on previous state of the art
reports(2), a picture has emerged of a rather
significant potential for further development
of EE in terms of quantitative as well as
qualitative aspects. The quantitative aspect
relates to the number of programs offered at
various levels (bachelor, master or doctoral
studies) by the HEIs, while the qualitative
aspect relays to the ways and means EE is
provided and above all, to the need for
relating EE systematically to the scienceindustry link. Apart from a few interesting
good practice exceptions, our conclusion is
that there is a great potential in most of the
institutions providing EE to take more
advantage of the potential existing in the
science-industry link.
The background for the growing
concern about EE is the shared awareness
of the importance of entrepreneurship to
economic development. However, there are
significant differences between countries
regarding entrepreneurial activity, and it is
necessary to base assumptions about the
need for EE on an analysis of the situation
of the actual country, its economic
performance and qualities of its
entrepreneurial function. In our previous
paper, we have discussed aspects related to

this by summarising various indicators of

relevance to the entrepreneurial function of
countries.(3)
Obviously, the issue of designing
programs for individual countries should be
related to the specific situation of each
country. What may be adequate to do in one
country, may not be adequate in another
country. A country with a high level of
entrepreneurship may have a different need
for developing programs for entrepreneurship
education than countries with a low level of
entrepreneurial activity; and the need for
specialising EE may depend on the specific
characteristics of the national economies.
In this paper, we summarise the current
policy status in the field of EE in higher
education, and then we conclude with policy
recommendations.

Rationale for fostering entrepreneurship education

In the 1960s and 1970s, large
companies dominated the economy, as the
size of firms was seen as a means to obtain
economies of scale, to encourage and
support innovation, research and
implementation of new technologies, to enter
and dominate foreign markets and to face
barriers and regulations.
In the last two decades of the twentieth
century, economists acknowledged a reverse
trend. Three basic factors offer an
explanation for this come back to the
Schumpeterian approach of entrepreneurship
of the mid 1930s, which is strongly related
to the mechanism of economic development
and to the process of introducing novelty in
the economy:

manufacturing companies. Their reaction

consisted in the shift of production towards
cheaper locations and lower labour costs, in
diversification and sophistication of the
supply (personalised goods and new services
to the clients), but also in more investments
in new technology aiming at significant
increase of productivity.
The new information and communication
technologies (ICT) gave rise to new markets,
such as personal computers, software and
ICT-based services, which dramatically
changed management and production
processes in virtually all the other industries
and led to growth and diversification of the
services sector.
According to the Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe,(4) these changes have led
to opportunities for new entrepreneurial initiative:
n The
increased complexity of
production processes requires a variety
of specialised inputs;
n The reduced costs of transmitting
knowledge across space makes inputs
by external providers cheaper;
n Large markets allow firms to specialise
for niche goods and services and, at
the same time, to operate on a more
European or worldwide scale.
Yet, research data show that Europe does
not exploit appropriately its entrepreneurial
opportunities and potential. Americans were
involved in three times more new entrepreneurial ventures than Europeans, according
to a 2002 Eurobarometer survey.(5) Europe
needs to foster entrepreneurial drive more
effectively is said in the above mentioned
Green Paper on Entrepreneurship.
One of the key factors to speed up the
movement towards recovering the existing gap

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

The structural changes at the level of

companies under the move towards
the knowledge driven economy and
to larger size of markets;
n The globalisation of markets for goods
and services;
n The impact of the modern information
and communication technologies
(ICT) on goods and services offered
to businesses and to the public at large.
More and more large companies
rationalise their activities by restructuring,
out-sourcing and/or downsizing production.
The goal is to give better and more efficient
response to the fast changing business
environment, to easier react to new business
opportunities, to avoid/diminish risks and to
offer answers to the challenges in even larger
and more sophisticated markets. The
enlarged European Union is now an internal
market of more than 450 million inhabitants
which significantly simplifies and facilitates
trading by the removal of trade barriers and
by the harmonisation process of market
regulations; but at the same time, it enhances
competition as the number of companies
competing in the single market is now
considerably higher in each of its segments.
On the other hand, structural changes
in the economy shifted Europes
comparative advantage towards the
knowledge-based activities. These develop
faster and more effectively in small and
medium sized settings. Under such
circumstances, the number of businesses
increased sharply in all the European
countries.
The creation of large free trade areas and
the globalisation of markets determined an
increased competitive pressure on
n

Theoretical and Applied Economics

in terms of entrepreneurial propensity is

entrepreneurship education in the initial
education and in all formal, informal and nonformal programmes and activities of lifelong
learning. The entrepreneurial function of individuals and/or companies is strengthened by
quality education and training and good
practices in university-industry linkages that
encourage intellectual entrepreneurship and the
commercialisation of outputs of academic
research.
Education and training should contribute
to encouraging entrepreneurship by:
n Fostering the right mindset;
n Providing relevant skills for self
employment;
n Raising awareness of career opportunities as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship teaching and learning is
present in the curriculum of preuniversity
education almost everywhere in Europe, but
the share of entrepreneurship oriented curriculum is still too small. Teaching about entrepreneurship is rather theoretical, while focus should
be on building entrepreneurial attitudes and
leadership. There is little use of practitioners
successful entrepreneurs, even successful
students in teaching entrepreneurship.
Teachers need to be trained in order to better
teach entrepreneurship. Manuals and case
studies have to be developed in close connection to the specific needs of each community/
region. In this context, we have to remember
that learning to do is one of the four pillars
of the education analyzed in the Delors 1996
Report Learning: The Treasure Within.
Learning to do gains a special
significance in the light of the Lisbon Agenda
of the European Commission and in the
context of the Bologna Process to enhance
the employability of graduates of higher

education. By a closer analysis, the Learning

to do pillar shows three facets that have to
be appropriately addressed by universities:
n Firstly, learning to do means acquiring
specific (professional) job-skills;
n Secondly, learning to do means
acquiring job-related social skills;
n Thirdly, learning to do means to educate
students to become agents of change,
to be willing to take risks in uncertain
situations in order to shape the future.
These three facets of entrepreneurship
education in European universities aim at
fostering the new mindset of young people. A
large range of initiatives have been considered
by the universities and by the European
Commission to enhance entrepreneurial
mindsets and skills: entrepreneurial training and
programmes, apprenticeships for students to
work with entrepreneurs, inviting entrepreneurs
to classrooms and increasing the number of
MBA programmes. Intellectual entrepreneurship is becoming for the most dynamic
universities now a philosophy of master and
doctoral degree education and a framework for
a better design of the university-industry link.(6)
In the European higher education
systems, the provision of entrepreneurship
education registers a large spectrum of
experiences. In most of the European
countries, entrepreneurship education is
mainly offered in schools of economics and
business administration and only in a few
cases in technical universities or in faculties
of sciences. In most of the HEIs it is still
neglected that Entrepreneurship drives
innovation, competitiveness, job creation
and growth. It allows new innovative ideas
to turn into successful ventures in high-tech
sectors and can unlock the personal
potential of disadvantaged people to create

Twenty years of events and policy

documents on entrepreneurship
education
The awareness at European level of the
objectives to be attained through EE and the
exchange of good practice between the EU
Member States have been initially stimulated
by international forums organised in 1998
in Stockholm (Training for Start-ups) and
in Baden (Training for entrepreneurs).
The European Charter for Small
Enterprises adopted by the General Affairs
Council and endorsed by the Feira European
Council in June 2000 has recognised the
importance of entrepreneurship as one of the
basic skills to be provided through life-long
learning. The Charter committed the
educational systems throughout European
Union to teach business and entrepreneurship
at all school levels, and to develop training
schemes for managers.(8)
The Nice/Sophia Antipolis Forum
organised in October 2000 by the European
Commission and the French authorities on
Training for entrepreneurship(9) approached the subject of entrepreneurship from
three different perspectives:
n In the educational system, from
primary to the tertiary level;
n In the vocational training system;
n In
the companies themselves
(intrapreneurship).
In the Report on the future objectives
of the education systems(10) adopted by the
Education Council on 12 February 2001 and
addressed to the European Council, some of

the key areas identified to be dealt with are:

n Links between education institutions
and businesses, and
n Development of the enterprise spirit
throughout education and training.
During the EU multiannual programme for
enterprise and entrepreneurship (2001-2005),
following the Lisbon Council (2000), the Best
procedure project on education and training(11) has been designed and implemented.
As part of the project implementation, a group
of experts from all the EU Member States and
Norway was set up in order to bring together
the existing expertise in the field and to provide
information and data on entrepreneurship
measures and programmes. A number of
relevant aspects have been identified in order
to be distinctively addressed:
n Entrepreneurship education in primary
and secondary schools;
n Training of teachers on the subject of
entrepreneurship;
n Links between schools/universities and
businesses aimed at promoting
entrepreneurship;
n Entrepreneurship chairs, departments
and activities at university level.
One of the tangible outcomes of this project
is the report published in 2004 with a collection
of 21 cases of good practice under the generic
title Helping to create an entrepreneurial
culture. A guide on good practices in
promoting entrepreneurial attitudes and skills
through education.(12) The cases are proposed
as possible models, but the editors recognise
that there are certainly many other cases of
good practice in the European countries.
In January 2003, the European
Commission launched a debate on
entrepreneurship policy. The starting point

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

jobs for themselves and find better place in

society. (7) Entrepreneurship is also
recognised as a basic skill that should be
fostered throughout lifelong learning.

Theoretical and Applied Economics

of this public consultation which included

the widest possible range of stakeholders was
the publication of the Green Paper
Entrepreneurship in Europe. (13) By
approaching entrepreneurship as a mindset,
the Green Paper expanded the scope of
entrepreneurship policy, beyond levelling
out the barriers for business development and
growth; in order to get more people interested
and equipped to become entrepreneurs.(14)
Among the key objectives for entrepreneurship policy, the public debate
revealed the need for:
n Training
and support services,
particularly for new entrepreneurs seen
as pre-requisites for entrepreneurs to
have the appropriate knowledge and
skills to run their businesses. Virtual
universities, distance learning, in house
training for employees and shared good
practice of successful entrepreneurs
could provide easy access and effective
training;
n Incubators, including those set up in
university campuses, seen as important
during the first difficult period when
mentoring and other support services
are welcomed;
n Entrepreneurship education seen as a
full part of the school curricula
throughout all levels of pre-university
education, as entrepreneurial skills are
considered as valuable life skills even
in other careers than those which are
business related;
n Interface
between science and
business, between universities and
industries seen as a factor of
commercial success for students,
teachers and researchers and as an

opportunity to exploit research results

commercially;
n Unlocking
the knowledge and
expertise held in universities,
developing advice on intellectual
property rights and improving access
to well-equipped incubator space for
academics are seen as valuable means
to enhance the contribution of higher
education institutions to the
entrepreneurial mindset of people.
A Summary Report on the public debate
following the Green Paper was published by
the European Commission in October 2003.
One of the responses to the Green Paper
is that of dr. Bert Twaalhoven. His Red paper
on Entrepreneurship(15) is based on the Ten
Proposals to Accelerate Change in the
European Entrepreneurial Culture by
Professor Juan Roure representing GrowthPlus. Among the various factors that are
important for entrepreneurship, the Red
Paper mentions the need for promoting EE
on a Pan-European level through the
following action steps that should be
translated into measurable targets and
monitored on a yearly basis:
n Teaching the teachers;
n Creating networks between technical
schools and business schools;
n Promoting partnerships between
universities and businesses.
In February 2004, the European
Commission adopted an Entrepreneurship
action plan,(16) which suggested horizontal
measures to create a supportive framework
for entrepreneurship policy in the EU
Member States. The cultural dimension and
the need for more supportive measures in
all the levels of education are included in

In October 2006, the European

Commission together with the Norwegian
Government invited the various actors
involved in EE to a European Conference
on Entrepreneurship Education in Oslo.(21)
Entrepreneurship Education in Europe:
Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets through
Education and Learning. Oslo, 26-27 October
2006, Final Proceedings, also available at:
Through the presentation of 38 cases of
good practices from across Europe, the
Conference aimed to discuss how to move
forward in promoting entrepreneurial
education more systematically. The origins of
the debate were the recommendations
presented in the Commissions Communication adopted in February 2006. The
Conference covered policies and practices in
fostering entrepreneurial mindsets of young
people through education at all the levels,
from primary school to university. Among the
concrete proposals and commonly agreed
ideas, one can mention:
n A better integration of programmes and
activities aiming at entrepreneurship
education in the established curriculum;
n The
scope of entrepreneurship
education goes far beyond training on
how to start a business;
n A common European platform in order
to help sharing and dissemination of
existing projects and teaching material;
n An increased public-private partnership
as a means to promote mentoring and/
or caching from people with business
experience;
n Students should be directly involved in
enterprise projects as a complementary
means to strengthen entrepreneurship
education in higher education.

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

the European agenda aiming at enhancing

entrepreneurship.
In March 2005, the European Youth
Pact(17) adopted by the European Council
mentions as a key element the promotion of
entrepreneurship among young people.
In November 2005, the European
Commission launched an integrated
Modern SME Policy for Growth and
Employment.(18)
Education and Training 2010 Work
Programme is the proposal of the European
Commission for a Recommendation on key
competences. Adopted in 2005 by the
European Parliament and the Council, this
document includes entrepreneurship in a
reference framework of eight key
competences for lifelong learning, necessary
for personal fulfilment, social inclusion,
active citizenship and employability.(19)
In February 2006, the European
Commission addressed to the Council, the
European Parliament, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the Regions a Communication
aiming at implementing the Community
Lisbon Programme: Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education and
learning.(20) In the wider context of lifelong
learning, this Communication focuses on
education from primary school to university,
including also secondary level vocational
education (initial vocational training) and
technical institutions of tertiary level and
aims to support EU Member States in
developing a more systematic strategy for
entrepreneurship education. As the
Communication underpins, best practice can
be identified in Europe; the challenge is to
spread further the existing positive examples.

Theoretical and Applied Economics

10

The high number of ideas advanced by

relevant stakeholders from 33 countries during
the Conference resulted in a detailed Catalogue
of proposals for action the Oslo Agenda
for Entrepreneurship Education for all the
actors involved: the European Commission,
national and regional/local governments,
educational institutions, NGOs, businesses,
pupils and students.(22)
The Oslo Agenda may be regarded as a
menu of proposals for how to promote
entrepreneurship in society, and with a
particular focus on actions that may be taken
in the educational system, and it is structured
in the following six parts: (A) Framework for
political support; (B) Support to Educational
Establishments; (C) Support to Teachers and
Educators; (D) Entrepreneurship activities in
Schools and in Higher Education; (E) Building
links and opening education to the outside
world; (F) Communication activities.
The items relevant to higher education
are in section D:
n Integrate entrepreneurship across
different subjects; all faculties/disciplines
should develop opportunities for
students at all levels to experience
entrepreneurship;
n Bring entrepreneurs into the classroom
and involve students directly in
enterprise projects;
n Increase the production of European
case studies;
n Give entrepreneurship more academic
esteem;
n Encourage students, graduates and researches with commercially viable business
ideas to develop them into companies;
n Embed evaluation systematically into
all programmes.

Although higher education is not

specifically addressed in section E, most of
the items of that section are also of interest
to the provision of EE in HEIs:
n Encourage the creation of learning
communities links between public
and private sector;
n Encourage private partners involvement
in education for entrepreneurship
funding or in kind contributions;
n Businesses should dedicate part of the
staff working time for activities within
schools and universities;
n Research on how employers can be
better engaged in education;
n Develop pedagogical abilities of entrepreneurs and business people aiming
at improvement of classroom activities;
n Conceive, develop and promote a
label for entrepreneurial schools and
entrepreneurial universities;
n Build Entrepreneurship Centres at the
local level for assisting schools and
universities in establishing links with
enterprises.
Generally, the Oslo Agenda seems to be
based on good, qualitative insights on
entrepreneurship and pedagogical principles
related to entrepreneurship education.
However, the approaches suggested in the
Oslo Agenda are fairly general in nature; to
some extent it seems to disregard the
importance of relating the strategies to
specific aspects of entrepreneurship and the
industrial structure of the individual country
and region. As we have pointed out in
previous sections of this report, there are
significant variations between countries (and
regions) regarding how the entrepreneurial
function is working. A more explicit bottom-

fact a platform for the exchange of best

practice and for the identification of
innovative solutions among the around 200
participants. It was organised in plenary
meetings and in four paralell workshops:
n
Modernising governance structures
within universities. Focusing on governance
reform oh HEIs, participants have discussed
the introduction of more market-type
mechanisms and responsiveness to societys
diverse needs. This includes to increase
capacity and to motivate willingness of HEIs
to become more involved in a wider range
of activities and to in volve more stakeholders in modern university governance.
n
Curricular development in close
linkage to the introduction of the three cycles
university education is also on the agenda of
higher educations modernising reform.
Learning outcomes of the various programmes
should be relevant for the job market in order
to ensure the employability of graduates. The
entrepreneurial mindset of students should
also be stimulated by offering modules or full
programmes dedicated to this issue as self
employment is seen as an alternative to getting
a job in a company.
n
Continuing education. There is a
growing need for ongoing education to keep
the worforce up to date with competitive
qualifications for Europe. The fast changing
nature of many professions in the context of
using modern ICTs, the more highly
educated people entering the labour market
and the decline of manufacturing jobs are
some of the factors which determine an
increased need for continuing education all
over Europe. Continuing education is also
seen as a tool for widening participation and
better social inclusion.

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

up strategy should be developed in which

the specific characteristics of the
entrepreneurial function may be an important
basis for designing national and regional
strategies for entrepreneurship education.
Furthermore, a significant drawback of
the current policy framework is that there are
made very few distinctions between the role
of higher education and the lower levels of
the educational systems. Obviously, the role
of higher education should be differentiated
from that of the lower level institutions, in
terms of more specialised programs in the
general business related topics as well as the
discipline specific issues related to
commercialisation; there may be very different
challenges faced by an entrepreneur starting
up a company based in biotechnology
compared to an entrepreneur starting up based
on humanistic disciplines. Moreover, as we
have pointed out earlier in our discussion, a
specific challenge to higher education is to
relate EE programs to the science-industry link
in a systematic way.
In March 2007 the European
Commission raised the idea to launch a
European Forum on Cooperation between
Higher Education and the Business
Community as a new contribution to the
enhancement of the socio-cultural
environment. The Forum was seen as an
opportunity to encourage partnerships
between the providers of knowledge, skills
and competences and the users aiming at
supporting each other for the benefice of their
own organisations, of their staff and their
students, for the benefit of society at large.
The first meeting of the European
University/Business Forum took place in
Bruxelles on 28-29 February 2008. It was in

11

Theoretical and Applied Economics

Mobility has several meanings in the

context of university/business link. It is firstly
a tool to promote knowledge and know-how
transfer between national and international
participants to various cooperation schemes
between universities, research institutes and
industries. Secondly, it facilitates researchers
and post docs to spend time in industry
placements. Thirdly, it offers students internship
and placement opportunities in companies. All
these activities help companies improve their
understanding of the types of skills available
in the three different cycles of university
studies and in the post docs. On the other hand,
mobility helps students to undestand real
working experience and encourages
entrepreneurship and innovation.
The feedback received during and after
the first University/Business Forum demonstrates a high interest of all the stakeholders
involved and the initiative to set up this
platform for a structured dialogue between the
relevant actors was highly appreciated.(23) As
follow-up events new thematic fora were scheduled to be organised on Continuing Education
and Lifelong Learning and on Curriculum
development and Entrepreneurship.
n

Policy recommendations
The general conclusion to be drawn from
the previous discussion is that there is a great
potential for developing EE policy further,
at the European level as well as at the country
level. A lot is happening in the EE field, and
particularly at the level of higher education
policy approaches so far are less developed.
The main trends in the development of
EE in European universities may be
summarised in the following points:

12

EE is expanding in volume;
n New target groups are identified. While
EE traditionally was based in
economics, business administration
and technology, programmes now also
include target groups belonging to
other fields, like the social sciences,
the humanities, and creative and
cultural disciplines;
n More specialised programmes are
developed focusing on specific types of
commercialisation activities related to
specific disciplines (phisics, chemistry,
biology, etc.) or specific industrial fields;
n More experience based learning.
In line with these trends, a number of
issues may be raised regarding the future
provision of EE in higher education and the
role of policy related to this.
The basic approach taken here is that the
design of policy should be based on a bottomup perspective, i.e. the need for skills and
competences related to entrepreneurship
among people with higher education should
be based on an analysis of the entrepreneurial
function. As discussed, the entrepreneurial
function may be characterised in many ways,
and the quality of the entrepreneurial function
may vary a lot between countries. Thus, the
design of EE policy should be based on an
analysis of these characteristics and an
assessment of what needs for entrepreneurial
skills and knowledge that is of importance for
the future development of the society.
All the master and doctoral programmes
designed by universities to meet new
challenges in professional development
should train students for multiple career
opportunities and hence must adapt and
innovate to build up appropriate skills and
n

The third issue is related to

specialisation, i.e. what should be the balance
between general introductory courses aiming
at all students independent of disciplinary
backgrounds, and specialised courses
focusing on specific issues related to the
commercialisation of specific technologies
or types of knowledge. Our impression from
the country reports is that there currently is
a great potential for developing more
specialised entrepreneurship programmes. In
particular, this seems to be important to
facilitate the commercialisation of research
output in fields that are recognised of
strategic importance to future development
of the knowledge driven economy.
The fourth issue is about pedagogy, and
here there is a strong bias in most entrepreneurship programs of being too traditional and
based on lectures and traditional class room
teaching. More emphasis should be on designing programs in order to give the students
contacts with real entrepreneurs and give the
opportunities for working with real cases.
The fifth issue is the relationship between
EE and the science-industry link. As pointed
out above, most HEIs do not organised their
entrepreneurship programs so they actively
can interfere with ongoing processes of
commercialisation and take advantage of
opportunities to work with real cases. Thus,
there is a great potential for improving EE
programs, and given the tendency that most
HEIs in the future will be colocated with
some kind of technology transfer institution,
it should also be relevant for most HEIs to
design programmes that are based on close
interaction with these institutions.
In addition to these five points, we will
also point at gender and regions as important

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

generic aptitudes to work in a changing

environment. Entrepreneurship education is
part of the more comprehensive or lesser
extent response offered by universities to the
needs of the knowledge society and economy.
In the design of a policy framework at
least five references should be considered:
scale, orientation, pedagogy, specialisation,
science-industry link.
The first aspect is the scale of providing
EE to what extent should EE be offered at
the level of the three study cycles, and to what
extent should EE be offered in general or
specialised courses? Our recommendation
would so far be that EE should be offered at
most HEIs at the first cycle (bachelor) level
as well at the second cycle (masters degree)
level. For groups of students that may be
regarded as of specific strategic importance
to industrial development, like students in
engineering or business administration, a basic
(introductory) course to entrepreneurship
should be compulsory for virtually all the
students, while elective courses should be
available for smaller groups.
The second issue is the orientation of EE,
i.e. to what extent should theoretical or practical
approaches be prioritised, and to what extent
should teaching be aiming at developing
entrepreneurial skills and behaviour.
Generally, there should be a mix of approaches,
as theoretical knowledge about entrepreneurship may be as important as the practical skills.
However, given the information from the
country reports, there so far seems to be a bias
towards theoretical courses, at least in some
countries, which indicate that at least to some
extent it is important to develop programmes
with stronger emphasis on entrepreneurial skills
and behaviour.

13

Theoretical and Applied Economics

aspects to consider when designing EE.

Generally, there is a strong male bias in
entrepreneurial activities, and the share of
women taking the role as entrepreneur is
generally low, in most countries below 30
percent, and in some countries even below
20. Moreover, there is a significant variation
between industries, in some traditionally
male dominated industries, the share of
female entrepreneurs is extremely low, like
in construction and some technology based
industries.(24)
The issue of regions may also be of great
importance in some countries, as start-up
rates may vary a lot between regions depending on the regions industrial structure and
culture for entrepreneurship. In particular, it
may be important to relate entrepreneurship
programmes to the specific situation of
regional industries and clusters(25).

Concluding remarks
The approach taken in this paper may
be regarded as a demand-oriented approach
in which the need for EE is assessed by
taking into account the performance of the
entrepreneurial function in each country/
region. However, the exercise of
summarising the various indicators has
revealed some problems related to how to
interpret the results. Partly, this is due to
conflicting results obtained by similar
indicators, partly to the great diversity
revealed through the indicators. Thus, the
indicators provide no basis for straight
forward conclusions regarding the provision
of entrepreneurship education, and the
examination of the statistical evidence thus
has to be supplemented by qualitative

14

assessments of various aspects of the

entrepreneurial function.
Our discussion of the current policy status
at the EU-level as well as for Romania and
Norway reveals a great potential for further
development of policy issues and strategies
for the provision of EE by higher education.
The policy strategies are very general in
nature, there is little discussion on the diversity
of countries and regions and how this should
be reflected in entrepreneurship programs.
And above all, there is little discussion of what
should be the specific role of higher education
compared to the lower levels of the
educational system. Thus, the most significant
drawback in the current situation is that a
specific policy targeting the explicit role of
HEIs in the provision of EE is lacking.
A first step in the development of a future
EE policy is to raise the issue of what should
be the specific role of HEIs when providing
entrepreneurship programmes. Given that the
pre-university level of the educational systems
provide basic knowledge about entrepreneurship as well as the basic skills for
operating smaller businesses, the role of higher
education should be to offer more comprehensive and specialised programmes to
develop competences beyond what is given
by the lower level programmes.
An important issue related to this is what
should actually be the role of Government
policy related to the provision of EE in
higher education. As HEIs are autonomous
institutions, the role of the Government is
mainly to work through incentives.
Moreover, as many HEIs are far beyond the
Ministry of Education regarding knowledge
about entrepreneurship education, the main
tasks for policy might be to facilitate

programmes to more actively contribute to

knowledge transfer and to start-ups of
knowledge based firms in fields or disciplines
the programmes are focusing on. Moreover,
there is generally a great challenge to integrate
EE with the science-industry link. The
currently more theory oriented educational
programmes in entrepreneurship should to a
greater extent include issues related to the
science-industry interface and the
commercialisation of knowledge products.
Programmes offered at the masters degree
level should focus on the commercialisation
of research output relevant to the specific
disciplines, and a more experience based
pedagogical approaches should be developed.
Europewide and in most of the countries there
are interesting cases of how this can be
organised. The main task for the Government
might be to facilitate the dissemination of that
information and to provide incentives to HEIs
to develop comprehensive programmes for
entrepreneurship education.

Towards a Comprehensive Policy on Entrepreneurship Education in the European Higher Education

processes of information exchange and to

organise some kind of coordinated process
in collaboration with the universities in order
the clarify the objectives for the future
provision of EE.
A second step in this process might be to
coordinate the efforts of HEIs in developing
more specialised strategies for addressing
needs for knowledge and competencies both
related to various disciplines and to specific
target groups. There should be a clear
distinction between what is offered at the
bachelor level and what is offered at the master
level. As many issues related to starting up
new firms are general in nature, it seems
feasible to offer general introductory courses
at the bachelor level which are open to all
students, while this may be followed up at
the master level with more specialised courses
with focus on specific issues related to the
actual disciplines.
An important issue for the future
development of EE is how to design

Notes
(1)

education in some European countries, papers

This paper is based on intermediate outcomes of the

presented as parts of the U-Know Project.

second phase of the U-Know research project

[Understanding the Relationship between Knowledge

(3)

and Competitiveness in the Enlarging European Union]

Entrepreneurship Education and the Entrepreneurial

which is partially financed by the European

Function in Higher Education Some Reflections on

Policy Implications- part of the U-Know Project.

Commission in Framework Programme 6, Priority 7

on Citizens and Governance in a knowledge based

(4)

contents which might not represent the opinion of the

(5)

Flash Eurobarometer 134 Entrepreneurship,

November 2002

European Commission.
According to Spilling, O., Pslaru, D., Sauermann, J.

Green Paper. Entrepreneurship in Europe, European

Commission, Brussels, 2003, COM (2003) 27 final.

society. The authors are solely responsible for the

(2)

See Spilling, O., Korka, M., Borlaug, S. (2008),

(6)

See Miclea, M. (2004). Learning to do as a Pillar of

(2007) State of the Art in Researching Entrepreneurial

Education and its Links to Entrepreneurial Studies in

Education and Spilling, O. (2008) Entrepreneurship

Higher Education: European Contexts and

15

Theoretical and Applied Economics

Approaches, in Higher Education in Europe,

(17)

youthpact_en.html

vol. 29, No.2.

(7)

Summary Report. The public debate following the

(18)

(8)

(19)

(10)

Available at: http://europa.eu.int/com/enterprise/

final.
(20)

and learning, COM (2006) 33 finalhttp://ec.europa.eu/

training_education/index.htm

enterprise/entrepreneurship/support_measures/
training_education/oslo.htm

Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/pol/

(22)

Europe. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/

entrepreneurship/support_measures/

entrepreneurship/support_measures/
training_education/oslo.htm

Helping to create an entrepreneurial culture. A guide

(23)

and skills through education, European Commission,

(24)

Directorate-General for Enterprise, Brussels, 2004.

(14)

See Spilling, O. (2005). Women entrepreneurship,

management and ownership in Norway 2004. A
statistical update, NIFU STEP, Oslo.

Green Paper. Entrepreneurship in Europe, European

Commission, Brussels, 2003, COM (2003) 27 final.

Report available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/

policies/educ/business/forum_en.html

on good practices in promoting entrepreneurial attitudes

(13)

The Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education in

Available at http://europa.eu.int/com/enterprise/
training_education/ index.htm

(12)

Fostering entrepreneurial mindsets through education

entrepreneurship/support_measures/

policy_en.html
(11)

EC proposal for a Recommendation on Key

Competences for Lifelong Learning, COM (2005), 548

Available at: http://europa.eu.int/com/enterprise/

enterprise-policy/charter/index.htm

(9)

Modern SME Policy for Growth and Employment,

COM (2005), 551 final.

Green Paper Entrepreneurship in Europe, European

Commission, Brussels, 19.10.2003, p.3.

Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/policies/

(25)

The authors have developed specific policy

Summary Report. The public debate following the

recommendations for the higher education systems in

Green Paper Entrepreneurship in Europe, European

Norway and Romania available on the web-site of the

Commission, Brussels, 19.10.2003, p.3.

U-Know project: http://iwh-halle.de/projects/uknow/

(15)

Red Paper on Entrepreneurship, 2003.

index.html

(16)

The European Agenda for Entrepreneurship, European

Commission, COM (2004) 70 final

References
Entrepreneurship Education in Europe: Fostering

Miclea, M. Learning to do as a Pillar of Education and

Entrepreneurial Mindsets through Education and

Its Links to Entrepreneurial Studies in Higher

Learning, Final Proceedings, Oslo, 26-27 October 2006

Education: European Contexts and Approaches. In:

The European Agenda for Entrepreneurship, European

Commission, COM (2004) 70
European Youth Pact, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/
youth/policies/youthpact_en.html
Green Paper on Entrepreneurship in Europe, European
Commission, Brussels, 2003, COM (2003) 27
Helping to create an entrepreneurial culture. A guide on
good practices in promoting entrepreneurial attitudes
and skills through education, European Commission,
Directorate-General for Enterprise, Brussels, 2004.

16

Higher Education in Europe, vol. 29, No.2/2004

The Oslo Agenda for Entrepreneurship Education in
Europe, Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/
entrepreneurship/support_measures/
training_education/oslo.htm
Spilling, O. Women entrepreneurship, management and
ownership in Norway 2004. A statistical update. NIFU
STEP, Oslo, 2005