Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Education: Exploring 10-Year Trends in Student Enrollment, Interest and Motivation

Abstract

Interdisciplinary entrepreneurship programs are becoming the norm rather than the exception at universities across the world. This paper examines trends in student enrollment, interests, motivations, career goals, and perceived competency over the past decade at a large public university offering an entrepreneurship credential to undergraduate students in all majors. Several trends were identified via pre- and post-program surveys ( n = 5,271 and n = 1,323) administered to participants. Engineering, technology, science, and international student enrollment grew; the motivations and interests of non-business students evolved slightly over time; and gender differences, but not disciplinary ones, were detected in relation to program outcomes and perceived effectiveness. Implications of this work for entrepreneurship education include showing how monitoring enrollment trends can inform program development and serve as a foundation for new research questions.