Student entrepreneurship clusters – A new way for entrepreneurship education?

International audienceWidespread demand has recently arisen for measures to betaken to provide students in higher education with the opportunity toacquire entrepreneurial skills. Echoes of this demand are to be found inrecent work produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) and in the desire expressed in 2010 by the Frenchgovernment to set up ‘Student Entrepreneurship Clusters’ in the country’suniversities. In this paper a description of the objectives defined for theseclusters is followed by an examination of the feasibility of a new offertargeting, in a given region, students in different academic years studyingfor different qualifications. The manner in which entrepreneurial skills areacquired is analysed with a view to developing a systematic picture of theprocess. Finally, the issue of assessing students’ acquisition ofentrepreneurial skills is also addressed