The Academic Journey of Entrepreneurship Students in Higher Education Institutions. The Systems Theory Approach

Abstract

In its fifth report, South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), published on 31 March 2020, called for institutions to carefully investigate undergraduate business education (curricula) after the business, economics, and management studies (in the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM)) category presented the highest dropouts and lowest throughput rates. To understand the academic journey of entrepreneurship students, this study reviewed the literature through the lens of the General Systems Theory (GST), together with Tuckman’s (1999) Tripartite Model of Motivation for Achievement (TMMA). Accordingly, this study viewed the journey of students as a dynamic system with the students having some characteristics and motivations (inputs) when entering higher education, and what the higher education institutions should do (processes) to achieve improved academic performance (output) of students. From the literature reviewed, this study suggests the need to profile students based on their pre-enrolment information and capturing the perceptions of what they think influenced their academic performance in high school. Apart from this, the need to understand the entrepreneurial profile of students has been suggested considering the importance of entrepreneurship in employment creation, especially in South Africa, with an unemployment rate of 32.6%. Thus, it is necessary to produce graduates with the much-needed entrepreneurial capabilities in the South African economy.

Teaching Entrepreneurship Education (EE) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Nigeria

“…For some Nigerians, EE, or what Sibanda & Iwu (2021) referred to as entrepreneurship literacy (EL), advances knowledge of starting up a business and the ability to handle and manage the numerous challenges that come with business complexities for the betterment of the society and the enhancement of the nation's economy. They see entrepreneurs as those individuals that have established top-ranking businesses (Nnamocha, 2021;Ihemadu & Mezieobi, 2021) like Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Mike Adenugo, Femi Atedola, Folurunsho Alakija, Innocent Chukwuma, Frank Nneji, Alex Mbata, ABC Orjiako, Uchenna Mezieobi and so on.…”

“…They do not recognize street hawkers, truck pushers, wheelbarrow pushers, taxi and bus drivers and all petty traders as entrepreneurs. Higher education institutions form part of the EE teaching and learning environment (Mazzarol 2014), thus suggesting that a thriving economy is achieved partly through quality education (Sibanda & Iwu, 2021). In Nigeria, the quest for achieving quality education especially in HEIs is being promoted by the various unions that make up higher education institutions.…”

Entrepreneurship programmes' effectiveness in fostering entrepreneurship. A South African university of technology inquiry

“…The throughput rate in the field of entrepreneurship is disappointing [17,31]. Despite establishing entrepreneurship-oriented courses and teaching entrepreneurship-related education as early as primary school, South Africa still faces acute youth unemployment [32,33].…”