Entrepreneurship Education and Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Intention among University Students in South western Nigeria

Faced with challenge of high unemployment rate, there is need for a drastic step to prepare the youths who account for majority of the unemployed figure for entrepreneurial activities rather than just preparing them to hunt for jobs after their study. While it is compulsory for higher institutions in Nigeria to take entrepreneurship courses, there is little evidence on its impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature on entrepreneurial intention using the theory of planned behaviour to examine the intentions of university students in southwestern Nigeria. In this paper, Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ) was used to measure entrepreneurial intentions using a sample of 127 final year students from one of the foremost private universities in southwestern Nigeria; Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression was used to determine the effect of the explanatory variable on the dependent variables. The result shows a positive but weak relationship between entrepreneurship education and antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. The study concludes that having entrepreneurship education may not totally translate into job creation hence, it was recommended that there is need for government and other stakeholders to consider other factors that influence entrepreneurship intention.