INDUSTRIAL VIEWPOINT - ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION - DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGICAL START-UP ENTREPRENEURS - A CASE-STUDY OF A GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM AT SWINBURNE-UNIVERSITY

Although universities have been offering courses in entrepreneurship e ducation for over 30 years, graduate-level degree programmes are only seven years old. In 1987 the Journal of Business Venturing printed an article that provided the architecture for a graduate degree programme in entrepreneurship which was subsequently adopted in 1988 for the de sign of a degree programme offered through Swinburne University of Tec hnology in Melbourne, Australia. Over the following eight years severa l hundred students passed through the three graduate levels of program ming offered. This paper discusses the implementation of the programme design, the results from two surveys tracking the activities and perf ormance of graduates, and some of the implications of this type of pro gramme offering. Since 87% of those surveyed started ventures, either independently or under the auspices of a corporation, and since the av erage number of employees in firms with sales was quite high at approx imately six, this type of programming shows signs not only of helping people begin meaningful entrepreneurial careers, but also of providing governments with an effective micro-economic response for job creatio n. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.