Entrepreneurship Courses Were Made Compulsory: An Empirical Study in Universiti Utara Malaysia (29 - 40)

Abstract

Entrepreneurship courses were made compulsory in public higher education institutions (IPTA) starting in 2007. Consequently, the Basics Entrepreneurial Acculturation Module has been used by all IPTA to strengthen the teaching of the course. Nevertheless, what is more important is to focus on lecturers who serve as the 'backbone' of the government's success. Given the importance of lecturers in this instance, a study of the perceptions of teaching entrepreneurship courses and effective teaching methods and environments that support the development of entrepreneurship in IPTA needs to be done. The objective of this study, in particular, was to identify the perceptions of lecturers at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to teach entrepreneurship to their students. Moreover, the identification of entrepreneurial teaching techniques or methods that work, and the extent to which universities play a role in promoting entrepreneurship have also been examined in this study. To this end, a total of 92 lecturers from three main academic collegees in UUM, namely the College of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law, Government and International Studies were participated in this study. Overall, the results indicate that the level of perception UUM lecturers for teaching entrepreneurship is moderately high (M=3.86). The study also presented a number of measures and recommendations to the parties concerned such as universities and government (the Ministry of Education) to enhance and promote entrepreneurship programmes available at IPTA