While the number of entrepreneurships courses and programmes provided by Aalborg University is growing, the specificities, the diversity in terms of approaches to entrepreneurship as well as their impact are not clearly defined yet. This study therefore aims to contribute to the understanding of the particularities of entrepreneurship education at Aalborg University.
Data used in this study is qualitative. Interviews with both students and professors from Aalborg University are analyzed using Glasser and Strauss’s (1967) grounded theory. Two other theories are utilized to structure the findings. The first, employed to discover how diverse entrepreneurship education is at Aalborg University, is Neck and Greene’s (2011) theory regarding the different approaches to entrepreneurship within entrepreneurship education. The second theory, used to outline the specificities of entrepreneurship education and its impact, is Fayolle and Gailly’s (2008) teaching model for entrepreneurship education.
As the results show, placing a great emphasis on planning and prediction, 52% of the programmes providing entrepreneurship courses at Aalborg University are framed within Neck and Greene’s (2011) process world. Focusing on entrepreneurial mental models and on planning as well, the second most utilized approach to entrepreneurship at Aalborg University is a mix between the cognition and the process world. More specifically, 33% of the programmes teach by the above mentioned combination of approaches. To a lesser extent, other approaches are utilized as well, either in a mix, either separately.
When confronted with Fayolle and Gailly’s (2008) teaching model, AAU entrepreneurship education proved to have a very broad definition. First of all, it is designed for students coming from all kinds of backgrounds, experiences and cultures. Second, it is meant to teach them especially about business planning tools and entrepreneurial thinking theories. Third, it employs Aalborg University’s problem-based learning complemented by several other teaching methods. Fourth, and last of all, it has as purpose the training of an elite capable of generating value both for individual and common purposes.
From a theoretical perspective this study contributes to the further development and application of Neck and Greene’s (2011) and Fayolle and Gailly’s (2008) theories in relation to entrepreneurship education. From a practical point of view, it provides recommendations on how entrepreneurship education programmes at Aalborg University can be improved.