National Policies on Entrepreneurship Education at University Level: The International Experience
Abstract
Today, the issues of human agency (the ability to proactively transform the environment) in the context of negative trends in socio-economic development are one of the most promising areas for research in the field of education. One of the most discussed forms of agency support through education in academic and expert literature is entrepreneurship training in higher education. National governments are important stakeholders in this problem area, and education policy is a key tool. This study analyzes national policies in the field of entrepreneurship education at the university level in 5 countries: China, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland and the USA. The analysis was based on official political documents, with a total of 35 documents included in the sample. The results of the study showed that all the countries under consideration declare an interest in teaching entrepreneurship in higher education, but to varying degrees articulate the expected results and the main directions of relevant activities in documents, which indicates the lack of consensus at the level of government policies regarding the tasks, forms and results of entrepreneurship education in universities. The most well-developed topic turned out to be related to skills, including entrepreneurial skills. There is also evidence that social and technological entrepreneurship is only in a limited number of cases positioned as a priority in entrepreneurship education, in particular, the emphasis on technological entrepreneurship is typical for Russia and China. Most of the analyzed national policies consider entrepreneurship (and, consequently, entrepreneurship education) as a response to the challenges of economic development. Compared to other countries, Russia's educational policy on entrepreneurship education at universities appears to be systematic and detailed, which could be a competitive advantage for Russian higher education in terms of developing the "entrepreneurial" component of students' and graduates' human potential.
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