Assessing engineering students’ perspectives of entrepreneurship education within higher education: a comparative study in Hong Kong

Abstract

With the increasing interest in entrepreneurship education within engineering education, there are questions on what engineering entrepreneurship education should include. As engineering entrepreneurship education aims to foster entrepreneurial individuals who will contribute to knowledge-based societies and economic growth, student perspectives are crucial. This study assessed first and final year engineering students’ perceptions on entrepreneurship education in a university in Hong Kong, identifying important competencies as learning outcomes and motivating and deterring factors for students to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. Findings offer implications for curriculum design and educational practices, particularly on formally offering entrepreneurship education in the engineering discipline, involving competencies development in educational practices and developing opportunities addressing students’ factors of motivation and deterrence.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneurship education
• entrepreneurial competencies
• higher education
• learning outcomes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded through the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (project reference number 17602122) and UGC TDLEG Funding.