DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This abstract presents the results of ten year’s research completed with students of all disciplines, with over 3000 who developed intrepreneurial competencies within their degree discipline and a control group of 1000 students who did not study Entrepreneurship in any form. The purpose of the research was to measure the Entrepreneurial competency development of students and any entrepreneurial outcomes at graduation, two years, five years and ten years after graduation. A research questionnaire based on the author’s “E-Factor” competency model was designed in conjunction with a leading Occupational Psychologist and these were administered at the requisite stages. The paper highlights the key results of the longitudinal study: Students who had undertaken the Curricular Entrepreneurial training had improved their “E-Factor” score significantly in comparison to the control group not only at graduation but at each stage of the study. There was a direct correlation between the level of Entrepreneurial competence and the extent of their curricular Entrepreneurial learning. There was also many more businesses started by those who had received curricular training than by those who were members of the control group. The more experiential the pedagogy the more impactful the Entrepreneurial Learnin