THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF CHALLENGES FACING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES, NORTH CENTRAL STATES OF NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The study investigates strategic management of challenges facing
entrepreneurship education in universities, North central states of Nigeria. The
focus of the study was on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats in the
management of entrepreneurship education in the universities. A descriptive
survey design was adopted for the study. The sample for the study was composed
through a multi-stage sampling technique. This gave a sample of 763 respondents
used for the study. Based on the review of literature, four research questions and
four null hypotheses guided the study. A questionnaire titled, Entrepreneurship
Education Strategic Management Questionnaire (EEdSMQ) was designed and
used for the study. This instrument was validated and the overall reliability
ascertained to be 0.76. From data collected, mean and standard deviation were
used to answer the research questions while T-test statistic was used to test the
null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results show that the strength of
entrepreneurship education in universities among others includes availability of
funds by the government and for in-service training of entrepreneurship lecturers;
and high enrolment of students for the EED programme. It was found that
universities have weaknesses in the management of entrepreneurship education,
but they also have opportunities of managing entrepreneurship education. Results
further show that there is no significant difference between the mean responses of
lecturers and coordinators on the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats to
entrepreneurship education in the Universities. Based on this, the work
recommends that, the universities authorities should make provision for lecturers
to go for workshops or seminars so as to be exposed to current trends in EED
programme. The Federal Government of Nigeria should maintain a policy aimed
at making adequate fund available for entrepreneurship education in the
universities, and a supervisory team should be set up to take the responsibility of
maintaining a judicious expenditure of such funds. The government should also
set up a blueprint on punishment of offenders for misappropriation of
entrepreneurship education fund. University authorities should be equipped with
entrepreneurial centres to expose lecturers and students to practical aspects of
EED. Firms and industries should be more willing to accept students for industrial
training as it strengthen the students’ interest in entrepreneurship education
programme.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The standard of education and its functionality has been a major concern for
educational administrators in Nigeria, especially in this 21st century. This is probably due
to global interest in education which has been identified as a means of development by
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeted towards eradication of poverty
across the globe. In a bid to improve educational standards in Nigeria, different
governments had come up with different policies in education, all aiming at solving
inherent social and economic problems like arm-robbery, kidnapping, hostage taking,
and graduate unemployment amongst others. Literature is replete with the fact that many
Nigerian graduates leave the university without jobs and with little or no hope of
securing any for many years. For instance, Dabalen, Oni and Adekola (2000) observed
that, unemployment among graduates in Nigeria is high, and their prospects for job have
been worsened over time and without hope. They recycle themselves as postgraduates.
Others without such opportunity and no hope of self-sustenance engage in various antisocial
and nefarious activities such as cultism, armed robbery and insurgency (Soludo,
2006). These challenges, according to Mando and Akaan (2013) are common among
university graduates in the North central states like Kogi, Benue, Taraba, Plateau and
Kwara. As a result, several graduates of Benue State University and University of
Agriculture, both in Makurdi, have indulged in acts of cultism, armed-robbery and other
vices not worthy of university graduates. This problem is indeed, a fallout of the inability
of the government, especially in Benue State (since the inception of democracy in 1999),
to provide job opportunities for the steaming graduates in the State.