University entrepreneurship education experiences: enhancing the entrepreneurial ecosystems in a UK

The recognition of a strong association between education and economic prosperity has enthused higher education institutions (HEIs) to amplify their initiatives to stimulate entrepreneurship within their local economies and beyond. However, the actual processes and impacts made through entrepreneurship education, and the extent to which and the conditions with which different types of programmes are effective, are not understood well. This article fills part of this gap by adopting the concept of university-based entrepreneurship ecosystems and contributes to the understanding of different impacts of entrepreneurship education and their implications for city-region development. Student-level data are gathered across two HEIs within one city-region in England, which include demographic backgrounds, university experiences and motivations and propensities to start-up businesses. Our analysis reveals that students who believe their university education has helped them develop competencies to address challenges of becoming an entrepreneur were 78 percent more likely to have experienced an increase in their stated preference to start-up a business. This suggests that HEIs should be more actively engaged in stimulating student entrepreneurial behaviour and developing university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems that may lead to greater city-region economic development.