Abstract:

One of the challenges of higher education in Nigeria is the high rate of graduate unemployment. This has been attributed to a number of factors one of which is the gap that often exists between school-imparted skills and skills required in the work environment. Many universities responded to this challenge by introducing general entrepreneurship education which has been running for quite a while. However, the unemployment rate among university graduates has remained on the increase. This suggests that the model of general entrepreneurship education in operation in the universities may not be effective in achieving the intended results. Of particular importance is the level of practical exposure as well as external industry linkages available to the programme.

This paper therefore critically examines the general entrepreneurship education programme in a private university in Nigeria with a view to identifying opportunities for improvement. The study is carried out using both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained through questionnaire distributed to both undergraduate and postgraduate students of the university while secondary data was obtained from published programme information and instruction schedules. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyse primary and secondary data respectively.

It was found that students have a limited number of entrepreneurial activities to choose from. In most cases, the programme is treated just like another course of study that must be fulfilled before graduation. Moreover, the time allocated to the programme can hardly enable reasonable proficiency to be attained. Also, industry linkage is not yet well developed. The study recommends that for more effectiveness, the entrepreneurial activities should be designed to suite the peculiar needs of the various disciplines in the university. By so doing, entrepreneurship is fully integrated into the various disciplines in the university.

Keywords:

Employment, entrepreneurship, higher education, Nigeria.