I was under the impression that universities were institutions that distributed knowledge, not entrepreneurial skill factories.<p>FYI, many schools have had entrepreneurial programs for years (maybe even decades in some cases.) These aren't new, maybe more popular today, but certainly not new.
Universities are failing the progression of thought, period. Few are actually encouraging people to share ideas freely; many are "open-minded" as long as your ideas are leftist and not too offensive.<p>I'm a high school senior and many colleges I've looked at and applied to have stricter regulations on speech than high schools and super-limiting workplaces.<p>Papers are being assigned with minimum length requirements, experiments involving drugs are being squashed, and political correctness is often being held higher than freedom, honesty, and the exchange of ideas.<p>So what I mean by all this is that, yes, to look at this progression towards bullshit and think "Maybe I'll learn to run a business there" is nonsense. I think it's good that entrepreneurs are spending less and less time with "higher" education. Get the fuck out and start actually building things.
I am not always sure it is up to the university to help entrepreneurs in a formal way.<p>However I was impressed when our neighbors to the South (Univ of Mich) created a Masters in Entrepreneurship.<p><a href="http://entrepreneurship.umich.edu/" rel="nofollow">http://entrepreneurship.umich.edu/</a><p>Details are scarce but judging by Steve Blank's enthusiasm it hews closer to Lean Startup than a traditional MBA.<p>Yet when I posted it in a local forum the consensus was the money for the degree would be better spent for startup capital.
Universities are not going to 'make' entrepreneurs. That trigger usually happens a lot earlier in life. Take for example, the "Montessori Mafia" that includes people like Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Jeff Bezos, Will Wright, Jimmy Wales, Julia Child, and Sean “P.Diddy” Combs. The common thread among them is that they all were educated in a Montessori environment (<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/04/05/the-montessori-mafia/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/04/05/the-montessori-...</a>). At a very early age, they were empowered with and nurtured to exercise their minds in ways that coincidentally make for successful entrepreneurs. I'm not saying Montessori is necessarily the only way to do this, but I think if you spoke to 10 entrepreneurs, a majority would point to experiences in their youth as having had an impact on their path.<p>Someone else that speaks to this is Sir Ken Robinson (Changing the Education Paradigms): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U</a>
Universities, by nature, have very rigid course structure that must be followed. Add other responsibilities like administrative formalities and deadline based work and universities become the last place an entrepreneur would be found. For example, if you watch the show Numb3rs, one of the issues that the crime-solving math proff has with the university is his lack of presence to teach and guide students. That is, what I believe, the problem with universities. Perhaps the online universities will resolve these issues as there will be faster processes and online paperwork that could be done at leisure. ( I ha e not read the article yet)
Those who can do, those who can't, teach. Why would you expect to find anyone who could teach entrepreneurial skills in a college? With the exception of a few institutions that hire actual entrepreneurs (eg, Steve Blank) most professors simply don't have the skills or experience.<p>Check the resumes of the professors at your local (or favorite) institutions. How many of them (if any) have experience as a founder, let alone just operational experience in a startup?