Entrepreneurship Education and Its Role in Building Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy: Insights from South African Universities

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been recognized globally as an indicator of economic growth, job creation, and addressing poverty alleviation challenges. The purpose of this study was to establish students' perceptions and expectations of entrepreneurship education. A quantitative research method was adopted for the study, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data was collected from students of the two universities in South Africa with different characteristics. Regarding the demographics, one was in the city, and the other was in a rural area. Data analysis was computed using Stata version 15. The findings indicate that the students agree that entrepreneurship education is important to provide an understanding of entrepreneurial activities. They further stated that it inspires them to start the businesses either during or after completing their qualifications. It is further noted that the students from the city university are more optimistic about entrepreneurship education than those in a rural university setting. It can be concluded that students perceive entrepreneurship education as a way of inspiring them to take entrepreneurship as a career. In order to thoroughly examine the effectiveness of EE, graduates who started or have grown a business should be considered for future research.