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Introduction

21 July, 2015 - 15:06

The current rise of entrepreneurship education in China adapts to the requirements of the construction of an innovation-oriented country and the development of high-quality education, itself. The significant influence of entrepreneurial activities on promoting the development of economics, the progress of science and technology, the creation of jobs, and the improvement of employment structures has been widely recognized by the community. The latest data show that in the entrepreneurship rankings of more than 60 countries and regions involved in a global entrepreneurship survey, China jumped from eleventh in 2002 to second in 2012 1. However, compared to this increase in active entrepreneurial activities, the development level of entrepreneurship education is not mature enough to meet the needs of entrepreneurial practice. The perfection of the entrepreneurship education system, therefore, is badly needed, and we must raise the level of entrepreneurship education, promoting the entrepreneurial qualities and abilities of university students. With the posting of “Several Opinions Proposed by the Ministry of Education on Improving the Overall Quality of Higher Education” in April 2012, the Ministry of Education made some clear and specific requirements, such as: “innovation and enterprise education should run through the whole process of personnel training”, “formulating the teaching basic requirements on innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities, developing the innovation and entrepreneurship education curriculum”, “vigorously carrying out the training of qualified teachers”, and “supporting students to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship training”. Strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship education will be one of the most important directions for higher education reform in the future, underlining the profound impact innovation and entrepreneurship education has on comprehensively improving the quality of higher education.

Entrepreneurship education in China did not start until the Ministry of Education initiated a pilot project of entrepreneurship education in April 2002 at nine universities, such as Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and so on. Along with this initiative, Chinese universities have been promoting entrepreneurship education continuously for the past 10 years, trying to increase students’ professional quality and entrepreneurial abilities. However, matters like curriculum design or teachers training are still prominent due to the short period of entrepreneurship education development that began from a low degree of development.

Taking 2002 as a starting point, and relying on investigations into Chinese entrepreneurship education in the past 10 years, this article will propose constructive ideas about perfecting the entrepreneurship education system of university students. Firstly, the paper will probe into the evolution of the aspects of educational forms, educational content, education models, and other areas of entrepreneurship education in the university, clarifying its development. Secondly, the paper will analyse the weaknesses of the curriculum system, teachers, education models, and supporting mechanism, pointing out the existing problems in universities’ entrepreneurship education.