PROJECT
ON
benchmarking
of entrepreneurship education
IN selected
EU & north-american countries
1.
Project title: RESEARCHES REGARDING THE HARMONIZATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION OF
ROMANIAN
UNIVERSITIES TO THE EUROPEAN UNION AND EASTERN
2. Purpose: To
collect current practice in entrepreneurship education at the Romanian universities as well as collect best
practices and curriculums in entrepreneurship education in the
old, new and associated EU countries as
well as in North-America in order to develop and establish an advance similar
education in the country too.
3.
Project period:
4.
Implementing Agency:
(i)
Faculty
of Economics, Law and Administrative Sciences,
(ii)
ERENET
Entrepreneurship Research and Education Network of Central European Universities
5.
Responsible project officers:
As.
Prof. Zsuzsanna Katalin Szabó, Dean of Faculty of Economics, Law and Administrative Sciences, Petru Maior
6. Project Committee:
Associate
Prof. Zsuzsanna Katalin Szabó, Dean of Faculty of Economics, Law and Administrative
Sciences,
Dr. Antal
Szabó, Scientific Director of ERENET
7.
Description of project:
The objectives of the
present project, elaborated by the academic staff of Management-Economics
Department of Petru Maior University of Targu-Mures, are the same as the global
objectives of CNCSIS contest 2007:
scientific research development in the process of human resources
development. The research is oriented to an educational component which support
the economy based on knowledge and innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable
development, elaboration and development of the research networks. The project
wishes to gather information in the field of investigation and implementation
of the entrepreneurial education in the Romanian universities, specialised
institutions of
8.
Participating countries:
EU countries:
(possible candidates
still in progress)
Associated EU countries:
North-America:
Background of the Project
The entrepreneurial education begins early in the past, and the familiar
framework represents an extremely influent human factor that a series of
specialized papers mention as a determinant factor. Unfortunately, excepting
According to David. Smallbone in “The Distinctions of
Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies”r published in Small Business
Economies 16 (2001), page 249-262, and Kluwer Academic Publisher Netherlands,
neither the recent history of these countries can represent an authentic model
for the entrepreneurship based on knowledge, over 40% of the Eastern European
countries businesses representing “the translation of the already performing
activities from the public sector, the identified type of entrepreneurship
being a type of “nomenclature business”, with thousands of companies operating
in a formal economy, with only one employee, part-time business, without any
elements of innovation and value for client, in these companies the
bureaucratic structures from the state sector being copied and respected just
so”.
Fortunately, in 2002, the Ministry of Education and Research from
Unfortunately, within the Romanian higher education, despite the
numerous internal political actions and the research found in the literature
worldwide, there is paying only a reduced attention to the entrepreneurial
education and there is no scientific approach of the formative actions at the
university level so that the profession and the specific process of the
Romanian entrepreneurship in the society based on knowledge can be carried out
appropriately, efficiently and effectively.
The entrepreneurial education in universities already began in 1930 in
In the last decade of the 20th Century, a series of countries
Australia, Brazil, India, Southern Korea, England, Ireland, France, Germany,
Holland, have started entrepreneurial education programmes at the university
level, and following the transition to a market economy is has been started in
Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic
countries, Poland, Czech Republic.
Regarding the major role of entrepreneurial education in universities
there are numerous papers (Franke, 2004) in article “Entrepreneurial
Intentions of Business Students: A Benchmarking Study” published in International
Journal of Innovation & Technology Management. “All over the world
there are rapidly developing the businesses based on new technologies within
the small and medium sized companies, area that needs technically specialized
staff, with knowledge in the business domain, to manage the organizations and
groups, so the formation education in the domain of entrepreneurship must be
developed”.
In an article on “Impact of
Entrepreneurship Education. A Comparative Study of the USA and Korea”, published in International Entrepreneurship and
Management Journal (1) 2005, page 27-43, Springer-Science Inc, USA, the authors
analyse the entrepreneurship in different national and organizational cultures,
identifying the differences, interest and intentions to develop businesses at
student groups level and the influence of some significant variables on the
entrepreneurial education: motivation, education, knowledge, faith in own
forces, abilities in creating and managing businesses, team work, etc. Two
conclusions have to be pointed out from the above mentioned work: “…entrepreneurial
education represents the trigger that motivates and impulsions business
creation based on turning the knowledge to account, the important entrepreneurs
have not grown instantly, they are the product of society and a national
culture oriented towards entrepreneurship…”.
The entrepreneurial phenomenon, in all its complexity, is studied in
most of the EU countries, in Asia,
The Romanian papers that approach entrepreneurship and the
entrepreneurial education are rare, there can be mentioned few researchers and
academic staff with relevant results: O. Nicolescu, I. Abrudan, I. Mihut, C.
Russu, L. Marian, a Ph.D. thesis written by S. Vaduva and a series of
proceedings published in the volumes of national and international conferences
of which we note the significant contribution of the researchers from the Petru
Maior University of Targu-Mures.
Justification
of the Project
The
The
Immediate objective
The
immediate objective of this project will be the analysis of the various
university curricula and modalities of national entrepreneurship education at
Bachelor, Master and Doctorandus levels fists of all at the universities and
high-schools in
Immediate Objective 1: Preparing Questionnaire on Entrepreneurship
Curricula for
The
Immediate Objective
2: Benchmarking of Best Practices in
The ERENET Network
Secretary in cooperation with the
ERENET jointly with the
Immediate Objective 3:
Development of Entrepreneurship Education Web-site
The
Immediate Objective
4: Study tour and participation in
entrepreneurship-oriented international events.
Within the framework of the
project study tour will be designed to make acquainted and visit leading
university departments in selected EU countries. The Project management is envisaged
to participate in relevant international events related to entrepreneurship and
enterprise development. The Petru Maior team will collect and purchase relevant
literature on entrepreneurship and enterprise development, which will serve as
basis for the new entrepreneurship curricula.
Immediate Objective
5: Organizing Workshop on Benchmarking
of University Entrepreneurship Education and preparing publication
The findings and national country
studies will be presented and discussed within the framework of the 3rd
ICELM Conference – ICELM is the abbreviation of the International Conference on
Economics, Law and Management – to be held last week of May and first week of
June 2008 at the Petru Maior University. The studies and proceeding of the
Workshop will be published in form of hard copy.
Implementation strategy
This project will be coordinated by As.
Prof. Zsuzsanna Katalin Szabó, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Juridical and
Administrative Sciences at the Petru Maior University of Targu-Muresh (Romania)
in cooperation with Dr. Antal Szabó, UN retired Regional Adviser on
Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Scientific Director of ERENET, in cooperation If
you have any question please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Zsuzsanna Szabó
by e-mail at zsszabo@rdslink.ro
or Dr. Antal Szabó by e-mail at antal.szabo@gmail.com
ERENET Network through it
comprehensive group of experts will assist in collecting data and best
practices in national entrepreneurship education curricula and practice.
The
address of the coordination Secretary at the Faculty of Economics, Juridical
and Administrative Sciences is as following:
As.
Prof. Zsuzsanna Katalin Szabó, PhD
Faculty
of Economics, Law and Administrative Sciences
LIVEZENI nr. 69
540088
Phone/Fax: (+40-265) 219034
E-mail: zsszabo@rdslink.ro