UPGRADING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN ARAB AND MENA COUNTRIES

Worldwide, more and more universities and colleges are modifying their roles to become deliberately entrepreneurial; besides the usual and ordinary teaching, basic and applied research activities, they are moving towards providing entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and capabilities that have quality impact on societal development, in general, and the economic growth, in particular.

In many western countries the entrepreneurship culture is well established, and the notion of entrepreneurial university is not a buzz anymore, but a whole system integrating higher education institutions and the national economy, with a direct impact on job creation, exploitation of ideas, opportunities and knowledge, and consequently growth and competitiveness.

In a number of newly industrializing and emerging countries, one could find that universities are not alone engaged in entrepreneurship education, lower levels education public and private institutions are also participating. Moreover, relevant training is offered throughout the year, including summer and in all types of social business and technological entrepreneurship.

What about the Middle East and North Africa countries? Are not they entrepreneurially capable of making the shift? Do not they have relatively large resources? Otherwise, what is missing and how can they overcome the relevant bottlenecks?

This paper is exploratory and aims at discussing the inner obstacles that slow down progress in the MENA region which aspires to become entrepreneurially productive and internationally competitive. The discussion will focus on higher education, including both the public and the private sectors.