University of Southern Denmark: IDEA Centre for Promoting Entrepreneurship Education Across the University

Abstract

The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) uses a centralized approach to spread and integrate EE across its six campuses and its five faculties. SDU’s EE is primarily based on a comprehensive and broad understanding of entrepreneurship in the sense of innovation and value creation. The SDU-annexed IDEA Entrepreneurship Centre plays a major role in developing adequate curricular courses, offering additional extra-curricular courses for start-up oriented students and alumni, as well as training educators from non-business faculties in EE. SDU aims at making one EE course obligatory in all study lines. So far, SDU provides 61 EE courses across all areas. Still most of the courses, and hence participants, belong to the faculty of social sciences. Many students only have a vague idea of what entrepreneurship is and only refer to it as “something with business”; hence they tend not to pick an EE course. Therefore, making EE courses compulsory in Bachelors or Master programmes (e.g. Sports and Health), or both, has been a crucial element in increasing student numbers attending EE. In SDU’s experience, an independent umbrella institution like IDEA organising all EE activities across the university helps to avoid the fear of “fighting over students”.

References

Research for this case was conducted by Prof. Dr. Ilona Ebbers and M.Sc. Kirsten Mikkelsen, both employed at the University of Flensburg (Germany) on behalf of the study for supporting the entrepreneurial potential of higher education (sepHE). Sources and references used include desk research plus the following:

1.1 Interviews

Torben Bager, Prof./Director of IDEA Entrepreneurship Center, 19 May 2014, Kolding

Suna Løwe Nielsen, PhD/Lector, University of Southern Denmark, 19 May 2014, Kolding

Lone Toftild, Coordinator/Head of Secretariate, IDEA Entrepreneurship Center, 22 May 2014, Flensburg

Focus Group Students:

• Kasper Lundsgaard, cand. merc./MSc Strategic Entrepreneurship

• Ramona Scheibe, cand. merc./MSc Strategic Entrepreneurship

• Kristian Aagaard, cand. merc. /MSc International Business

• Jonas Midtgaard Pedersen, HA/BA Entreprenørskab og Innovation

• All interviewed 26th May at SDU in Kolding.

Proof reading: Torben Bager, Lone Toftild, Bodil Høeg (IDEA)

1.2 Literature and Websites

HESA, Higher Education Statistics Agency (2014a) Table 1—All students by HE institution, level of study, mode of study and domicile 2012/13. Excel file. http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php/content/view/1973/239/. Accessed 12 May 2014

Kourilsky ML, Walstad WB (1998) Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices. J Bus Ventur 13:77–88

Moberg K (2012) An entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale with neutral wording. SMG Working paper no. 6/2012

SDU (2013) Årsrapport. www.sdu.dk/om_sdu/dokumentation_tal/aarsrapporter. Accessed 29 Aug 2014

SDU (2014a) General Information on SDU. www.sdu.dk. Accessed 14 May 2014

SDU (2014b) Curricular course entrepreneurship and design. http://www.sdu.dk/uddannelse/bachelor/erhvervsoekonomihadesignko/uddannelsens_opbygning/k-+entreprenørskab+og+design. Accessed 22 May 2014

SDU (2014c) Udviklingskontrakt 2012–2014. http://www.sdu.dk/om_sdu/organisationen/udviklingskontrakt. Accessed 6 Sept 2014

SDU (2015) About Danfoss Global Business Centre. http://www.sdu.dk/en/Om_SDU/Institutter_centre/The+Danfoss+Center+of+Global+Business/About+DCGB. Accessed 23 Jan 2015