Abstract:

This abstract is based on project contributions from partners in, Lithuania, Slovenia, Finland and the UK. The members from partner countries are as follows:
- Slovenia, University of Nova Gorica, Dr. P.Purg
- Lithuania, Vilnius Business College, Dr. D. Rimkuniiene
- Finland, University of Turku, V.Hautala
- UK, Staffordshire University, L.Drumm

There is no lack of evidence that Europe places a high importance on entrepreneurial education:
“Europe needs more entrepreneurs, more innovation and more high-growth SMEs. This is why it is necessary to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindsets of young people. The important role of education in promoting more entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours is now widely recognised.” [1].

“The European Commission is committed to promoting education for entrepreneurship at all levels” [2].

This paper introduces the key interim findings of the IDEATE project[3] which aims to provide a new approach to including entrepreneurial education into Higher Education programmes through the development and delivery of a trans-national, interdisciplinary module delivered through intensive learning mobilities (workshops).

This paper is written halfway through the IDEATE project, after two student mobilities, involving 16 students from 4 Universities. The students were from varying study programmes including Law, ICT, Creative arts and Bio-medicine. The paper reflects on the practical stages of the module development, and compares experiences from the 4 EU Universities[4], including the validation process, the selection of students, the development of a common syllabus and common assessment, as well as the acceptance of the module as part of the learning plan of each student. It will not include the student experience in detail as this will be analysed after the second (2016) cohort, and will be the subject of another publication. Instead it focusses on the potential benefits, enablers and barriers to HEIs working with this new pedagogic approach, and constructs some lessons learned for those managing HE provision.

The paper will conclude by identifying several issues to address before HEIs can engage with trans-national and inter-disciplinary ways of working, including:
• Credit equivalence and imperfect understanding of the ECTS,
• International differences in the validation processes
• Restriction imposed by tightly defined local curricula and award structures with pre-defined timetables
• Discrepancies between institutions’ expectations regarding teaching and assessment

References:
[1] Education & Training for Entrepreneurship http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/education-training-entrepreneurship/index_en.htm
[2] Entrepreneurship Education: A Road To Success
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015
ISBN 978-92-79-44556-9 doi: 10.2769/408497 © European Union, 2015
[3] www.ideate.me Project reference number: 539696-LLP-1-2013-1-SI-ERASMUS-EQR
[4] IDEATE partners:
Univerza v Novi Gorici (University of Nova Gorica) Slovenia
Staffordshire University, United Kingdom
University of Turku, Finland
Vilnius Business College, Lithuania

Keywords:

Inter-disciplinary education, pedagogy, innovative curricula, entrepreneurial education.