Entrepreneurship education - is it one size fits all?

What is your major/minor/intended/projected academic path? Is entrepreneurship a "natural" fit for this path? Why or why not? What are the ways in which entrepreneurship education can be made accessible to all academic disciplines and why is it important?

I personally believe that entrepreneurship is complementary to all disciplines, since on the most fundamental level, it is about identifying desires or problems and using innovative solutions to improve lives. I was confused by the question of whether entrepreneurship is a natural fit for any path, since most fields involve some form of entrepreneurship to varying extents. I am a Quantitative Economics major and Statistics and Data Science minor. Economics and Data science are both interdisciplinary fields that often combine scientific, theoretical knowledge and social sciences to extract insights, and understand the world better. The practical skills I have learned through my major and minor such as data analysis and visualization are not directly related to entrepreneurship, however they are applicable to all fields. Thus, having a foundational background in these fields can help me understand a variety of disciplines. I believe that entrepreneurship is indeed a natural fit for this path, since the foundations of these backgrounds help view the world through a different lens. The intersection of various fields and entrepreneurship is also prominent. For example, using technology for improving mental wellbeing or artificial intelligence for agricultural development. 

One perk of a liberal arts education is the ability to take courses in and learn about fields across the different areas of knowledge. This helps develop a better understanding of personal interests and an entrepreneurial mindset can be applied to benefit multiple fields. 

Currently, there is massive technological advancement and an uncertain future on a global scale. With complicated developmental, environmental and social issues and the rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the opportunities and scope for entrepreneurship are increasing. 

According to Leo Higdon Jr. (2005),“Technological advances are also instigating enormous changes in the social and nonprofit sectors. To cope with this new and unpredictable world, we need individuals with a new way of thinking: individuals with the combination of a liberal education and an entrepreneurial mindset who will be creative, adaptable, and able to think at higher levels of complexity.” This is why entrepreneurship education is important.

In Business Not as Usual: Developing Socially Conscious Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs, the authors Parris and Bowers (2017) identify the importance of course design as a catalyst for inspiring future entrepreneurs. 

One potential way to improve the accessibility of entrepreneurship education is to study entrepreneurship through an interdisciplinary lens. Thus, entrepreneurship can be embedded in "non-business" disciplines, such as the liberal arts, life sciences, and engineering. For example, entrepreneurial processes can be integrated as assignments in coursework. As Godwyn (2009) points out, integrating liberal arts courses with entrepreneurship can help students develop entrepreneurial skills such as problem solving, creativity and teamwork. 

Another way to further strengthen this is through the trial and error approach. According to Higdon (2005), it is an approach “in which students act, observe, learn from their mistakes, and adjust their plan or hypothesis as needed. In effect, liberally educated students with an entrepreneurial mindset are taught to expect surprises; the important thing is that they decide on a course of action, see the consequences of their decisions, and learn from them.”  

Thus, entrepreneurship education often includes approaches that essentially bring more autonomy and a hands-on take on learning. By inculcating these various fields with entrepreneurship, students can combine theoretical knowledge with the ability to carry out changes they want to see in the real world.