Higher Education Policy and Entrepreneurship Education in Nigeria (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Education and Practice, 2013
This paper focused on entrepreneurship education in Nigerian Universities as a recipe for national development in the 21st century. The sole aim of this paper was to highlight the place of entrepreneurial education in directing national development and possible challenges of entrepreneurial education. Entrepreneurial education was considered in this paper as the inculcation in the citizenry appropriate skills, habits and competences necessary for self and paid employments. Inadequate funding, man power shortage, among others was identified as the challenges of entrepreneurship education in Nigerian Universities. It was recommended that apart from improving the funding policy of the government, the Universities should strictly embrace and follow the entrepreneurship education policy of the federal government.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: A TOOL FOR NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Nigeria is faced with myriad of problems among which are graduate unemployment, poverty, crime, and other social vices, which are as a result of economic meltdown or unsustainable development in the country, which needs urgent attention. In order to overcome this menace, this position paper examines the nature and concept of entrepreneurship education and its application for graduates of Nigerian universities. The specific impact of entrepreneurship education on the society for national transformation among which are the provision of employment opportunities, increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), improved standard of living as well as under-dependency on white collar job by the universities' graduates are discussed. The paper comes up with a model of how public and private partnership can be enhanced through entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities towards national transformation. The challenges of entrepreneurship education which include inadequate trainers or little knowledge of entrepreneurship by the universities' lecturers, inadequate fund for the program by the universities administrators as well as challenges in the area of curriculum development and implementation were also pointed out and recommendations were made on how such challenges can be overcome towards the practical realisation of entrepreneurship education in our higher institutions.
REPOSITIONING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2018
Entrepreneurship is potent and in-negligible if any nation or country is to experience national development, it is an effective means of achieving economic growth and national development, it encapsulates the generation of greater employment opportunities, the development of local technological base, source of foreign exchange earnings and citizens self-reliance. This paper examines the necessity and the need to make entrepreneurship education programme more viable in our universities, so as to empower our graduates with new skills that could help them to harness opportunities, be self-reliant and become job-creators and not job-seekers on graduation. Specifically, the paper canvasses the concepts of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and national development, types of .entrepreneurship programme, its historical development in Nigerian universities, relevance and challenges of entrepreneurship programme in Nigerian universities. Recommendations on how to strengthen entrepreneurship programme in Nigerian universities for National development were also made.
The study sought to find out the challenges and prospects of inclusion of entrepreneurship education in the curriculum of Nigerian universities for self reliance. Three research questions guided the study. The sample for the study was 450 final year students who had taken entrepreneurship course in their third year in the Nsukka campus of the University of Nigeria. The respondents were drawn through disproportionate random sampling technique. A 40-item questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Fifteen of the items were on attitudinal challenges; ten were on methodological challenges, while fifteen were on the strategies that can increase the prospects of entrepreneurship education. The instrument was face validated by three lecturers in the Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The results were analysed using mean scores. The results showed that there were attitudinal and methodological challenges facing entrepreneurship education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Some strategies were also found to be capable of boosting the prospects of entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities. The paper recommended, among others, that entrepreneurship education should not be taught as a general studies course; rather it should be domic iled in students’ faculties or departments. Also, the entrepreneurship potentials of courses in students’ base departments should be explored and imparted to the students using indepth, practical and exploratory methods. More aggressive campaign should be carried out to disabuse the minds of the students on the negative attitude they have to entrepreneurship education and self employment.
Appraising Entrepreneurship Education in a Nigerian University
2017
One of the challenges of higher education in Nigeria is the high rate of graduate unemployment. This has been attributed to a number of factors one of which is the gap that often exists between schoolimparted skills and skills required in the work environment. Many universities responded to this challenge by introducing general entrepreneurship education which has been running for quite a while. However, the unemployment rate among university graduates has remained on the increase. This suggests that the model of general entrepreneurship education in operation in the universities may not be effective in achieving the intended results. Of particular importance is the level of practical exposure as well as external industry linkages available to the programme. This paper therefore critically examines the general entrepreneurship education programme in a private university in Nigeria with a view to identifying opportunities for improvement. The study is carried out using both primary a...
The standard of education and its functionality has been a major concern for educational administrators in Nigeria, especially in this 21 st century. This is probably due to global interest in education which has been identified as a means of development by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeted towards eradication of poverty across the globe. In a bid to improve educational standards in Nigeria, different governments had come up with different policies in education, all aiming at solving inherent social and economic problems like arm-robbery, kidnapping, hostage taking, and graduate unemployment amongst others. Literature is replete with the fact that many Nigerian graduates leave the university without jobs and with little or no hope of securing any for many years. For instance, Dabalen, Oni and Adekola (2000) observed that, unemployment among graduates in Nigeria is high, and their prospects for job have been worsened over time and without hope. They recycle themselves as postgraduates. Others without such opportunity and no hope of self-sustenance engage in various antisocial and nefarious activities such as cultism, armed robbery and insurgency (Soludo, 2006). These challenges, according to Mando and Akaan (2013) are common among university graduates in the North central states like Kogi, Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Kwara. As a result, several graduates of Benue State University and University of Agriculture, both in Makurdi, have indulged in acts of cultism, armed-robbery and other vices not worthy of university graduates. This problem is indeed, a fallout of the inability of the government, especially in Benue State (since the inception of democracy in 1999), to provide job opportunities for the steaming graduates in the State. As a result of the above problem, entrepreneurship education was introduced by the government in institutions of learning. The idea was to enable the students to appreciate the nature and dynamics of entrepreneurship, and subsequently,
THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES IN NIGERIA UNIVERSITY
Entrepreneurship Studies is necessary in order to develop expertise as an entrepreneur, identify business opportunities and exploit them. The study therefore, examined the impact of entrepreneurship studies in Nigeria University using university in Abuja, Abuja as a case study as a tool for self sustenance and poverty alleviation. Questionnaire was used to collect data, while the data collected was analyzed using simple percentage. It was however, observed that entrepreneurship education offers a solution by preparing candidates particularly youths offered admission into university to be responsible, enterprising individuals, who can become entrepreneurs and ready to take risks and learn from the outcome. The researchers recommended that entrepreneurship Studies is expected to start from any form of post secondary institution, to enable the young ones understand the economics of life, survival, contribution to socio-economic development of their immediate environment and beyond. It also recommended that government should create a friendly or an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and consumer goods to boost the economy.
An Exemplar of Entrepreneurship Education in Nigeria: A Case Study.
Universities across the world have been converging towards entrepreneurship, by taking a more active role in society and economy, as well as educating students. This article assesses entrepreneurship education in Nigeria in the context of the policies and strategies of the Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti, a private higher education, to generate innovation out of academic knowledge production. The article considers four facilitators of entrepreneurship, namely, incentive structures, supporting infrastructure, management style, and corporate culture, and submits that the University’s combination of high academic standards, quality and stability of its leadership, vocational orientation, and significant incentives for good performance are enabling factors stimulating its entrepreneurial developments. The objective of this article is to offer a blueprint for policy makers, curriculum developers, and other stakeholders responsible for developing and implementing entrepreneurship promotion efforts in Nigerian universities.
Entrepreneurial Education as a tool for reducing Unemployment in Nigeria
Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting the surging rate of unemployment in the country, therefore the breeding of psychological dependence on direct access to money. Entrepreneurial development through education will advance the economy of the nation; much credence should be given to it and ingrained with focus on profitable personal development. Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing through it. This research work, therefore examines the strategies of entrepreneurial education carried out in two of the universities pioneering it; Federal University of Technology, Akure, and Covenant University Ota, the former being a public university and the latter a private university. The objectives of the study were to appraise if educational styles arouse interest of students in the industries of their discipline; to explore the effectiveness of entrepreneurial development strategy in education in universities that implements it; to see if the current university educational system stimulates entrepreneurial creativity in its students The methodology adopted was a mixed analysis of quantitative and qualitative parameters based on the survey design which relied on primary and secondary sources of gathering data, through the use of questionnaires and interview instruments. Three hundred (300) questionnaires were administered, and two hundred and fifty four (254) were returned. The study adopted quota and simple random sampling technique. The data was analyzed and presented using tables and percentages. The findings of this research portrays a huge disparity between the perception and conceptualization of entrepreneurship in the graduates of each university used in the study, this further highlights the significant impact of the system of teaching entrepreneurship within the two universities. The study shows that entrepreneurial education should be taught with field oriented and practical approaches. It was discovered that graduates from Covenant University are more apt to creating value, and are more self driven and willing to use opportunities available to them whether or not they have an employment. The study recommends that there should be a working partnership, bridging the gap between the higher institutions and the industry. Lecturers should have field experience to aid communication and teaching of the courses and Universities should work toward becoming entrepreneurial hubs for students and young entrepreneurs. The government should also focus more on the youth age group for entrepreneurship development in the country amongst other things critical to the development of the nation.
Justification of Entrepreneurial Education in Nigeria Tertiary Education
“Today more than ever before in human history, the wealth or poverty of nations depend on the quality of higher education. Those with a repertoire of skills and a greater capacity for learning can look forward to lifetime of unprecedented economic fulfillment. But in the coming decades the poorly educated face little better than the dreary prospects of lives of quite desperation” (Gills, 1999). This above quotation has implication for Nigeria educational system especially the tertiary institutions, vis-a-vis entrepreneurship education. Higher or tertiary education is referred to as the education given after secondary education in Universities, Colleges of Education, and Polytechnics as well as those institutions offering correspondence courses. According to the National Policy on Education (NPE) (2004:36), one of the goals of tertiary education is to acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self-reliant and useful member of the society. The above goal as enunciated by the NPE is laudable. However the question that arises is to what extent have the beneficiaries of higher education acquired both physical and intellectual skills which will enable them to be self reliant and useful members of the society? It is a statement of fact that the development of any nation depends largely on the creative capacity of the citizens to be capable of effectively exploring and exploiting the country’s natural resources and transforming them into finished products and services so as to enhance the standard of living of the country’s citizen.