Using Alumni Entrepreneurs Feedback to shape University Entrepreneurship Education

It is accepted by most agencies that enterprise education is important for
students and for the economy, however it is often difficult to measure the
effectiveness of this education as effects can take many years to be shown. We
have collected qualitative data from over 300 alumni entrepreneurs,
reflecting on their time at the University of Manchester, which suggested that
their experiences of enterprise education were mixed and that they would
have benefitted from more practical courses rather than more academically
interesting topics. For example they wanted training on how to register a
company, understanding tax, employment law and basic book keeping, rather
than how to generate ideas and theories of innovation and entrepreneurship.
There is a clear need to shift some enterprise education to cater for those
who have an idea now and need practical advice, or may have an idea in the
future from their subject area and need to know how to proceed formally. On
curricular courses are more likely to be academically and theory driven,
especially with the need to provide appropriate assessment for students,
whilst it is often the extracurricular activities which provide more practical
details in how to start a business, which may not be open to all students, or
may not be well advertised. Since many students don’t start a business until
later in life, with activity peaking in the 35-60 year old age group, they often
do not take advantage of these opportunities while at university, should they
be available. Our paper shows there needs to be a better mix of practical
with academic courses to provide for alumni entrepreneurs’ needs to allow
them to start a business whether it be straight form university or later on in
life.