Evaluating Enterprise Education: Why do it?

This paper is a conceptual development, following research into graduate entrepreneurs and their experience of enterprise education in university. The case studies are limited to graduates of one university in Wales. One of the key findings of the research was that none of the graduate entrepreneurs labelled themselves as entrepreneurs and furthermore questioned the meaning of the word and its relevance to them. This leads to the discussion in this paper whereby the locus of the self-identity of students experiencing forms of enterprise education; the labelling of such people by the teachers and institutions where enterprise education takes place and the implications of differences to the evaluation of enterprise education are examined. The authors argue that evaluation of enterprise education needs to develop beyond the economist view whereby business start-up and business growth are key factors; and educationally beyond institutional requirements of pass rates and grades. Through the socio-psychological lens of identity, this paper promotes the notion that evaluations of enterprise education need to expand and should encompass prime pedagogical objectives that education enables people to grow and develop, to shape their own new identities in the light of their learning experiences.