The importance of being entrepreneurial

There is a great ideological disagreement concerning the importance of being entrepreneurial in the context of academic pursuits. The dispute is not so much about the value of entrepreneurialism, but more about how we define entrepreneurialism in the first place.

​Those who see the entrepreneur as simply someone who 'starts a business' with a view to 'making a profit' (gasp!) are generally hostile to the idea that it should be embedded in the university curriculum. This hostility is expressed through loaded terminology such as 'neoliberal economic aims' (gasp!) said to be infesting higher education with capitalist propaganda and undermining its traditionally lofty ideals. [Editor: socialist ideals, of course, because those are the only ideals worth having]. Those who see the entrepreneur as simply someone who is creative and flexible and always looking for innovative ways to solve problems, are naturally more receptive to incorporating entrepreneurialism into the curriculum.

This means that what seems to be a debate about whether to be, or not to be, entrepreneurial, is really a debate about the meaning and value of entrepreneurial attitudes in the world of work.

An interesting study of students' expectations at the University of Luton (yes, I know) studying for a degree in Tourism and Hospitality (yes, I know) found that the students wanted to learn lots of deep knowledge about the tourism and hospitality industry, but they did not want to learn about how to run a business because, what does running a business have to do with being a tourism and hospitality expert and thus getting a good job in the tourism and hospitality industry? The employers, for their part, were not interested in whether students had deep academic knowledge about their alleged 'industry', but were simply looking for graduates who could read and understand basic stuff, write coherent sentences, and be polite to customers (Petrova and Ujma, Employability Case Study, Academy of Higher Education). Apparently, being literate and not alienating the customers are surprisingly important skills in the job market. 

In that context, the role of 'entrepreneurship education' (yes, this is a thing) is somehow to connect the dots between what students think they ought to be learning, and what employers would like them to be learning, so that they can make a suitable match after graduation. This is not as easy as you'd think, when you have students focused on their consumer protection rights and employers who want graduates with a 'how can I be of service to you' attitude. You can see why the ideological debates creep in: ultimately it is not extremely easy for a graduate steeped in socialist ideals to offer obvious value to an employer who is trying to run a business and turn a profit (gasp!). Some very careful conversations are needed, to make this work.