In the past 25 years in developed nations, higher education has shifted to a managerial model grounded in issues of efficiency, effectiveness, and economy (Pollitt, 1990). The shift is the result of external pressures such as shrinking state budgets that led to decreased spending on higher education (Hauptman, 2001; Lawrence & Sharma, 2002). This in turn has created “privatization” at public universities, where many highly sought after academic programs (business, law, medicine, online education) require students to fully fund their degrees (Mamdami, 2007; Zusman, 2001). “Higher education is witnessing a process of deep institutional change that involves the deinstitutionalization of its rooted policy and values frameworks and the parallel institutionalization of new ones” (Vaira, 2004, p. 485). More recently, these social, cultural, and economic dynamics have spread to higher education systems in developing nations as well. 

The shift to an entrepreneurial model has led to reforms at the institutional level that reflect market forces (Clark, 1998; Mars & Metcalfe, 2009; Schulte, 2004) including quality assurance initiatives that purportedly ensure accountability, the influx of management language to describe the functions of the institution (students who have become customers, deans who have become vice presidents), and the reorganization of academic units (adjustments in product lines) to reflect current market demands (Deem, 2001; Gumport, 2000; Lynch, 2006). “[A]dopting business rationales with strategic management principles has become de rigueur for repositioning higher education organizations to compete within new economic realities” (Gumport, 2000, p. 73).  This 90-minute workshop will lead participants through a series of targeted exercises in which they will identify how entrepreneurship is operationalized in higher education; how entrepreneurship enhances higher education; how it inhibits higher education; and finally, what more needs to be addressed in the scholarship on entrepreneurship. 

The workshop will be divided into four segments. We will begin by introducing the constructs commonly associated with entrepreneurship in higher education, such as academic capitalism (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004), managerialism (Deem, 1998; 2001; Pollitt, 1990) and marketization (Lynch, 2006). We will then discuss how to identify reform initiatives and activities associated with the entrepreneurship, focusing on institutions in Europe, the U.S., and Africa (this portion of the workshop will require internet access). We will assist participants in discovering ways to investigate and measure entrepreneurial activities, policies, and practices at their institutions through structured activities. Depending on the number of participants, we may elect to assign them to small groups (with others working at a like organization) as they work through the exercises. The next segment will focus on exploring the ways in which entrepreneurial mechanisms enhance and inhibit the mission of higher education. Finally, we will work with participants, again through structured activities, to conceptualize research topics for future scholarly exploration in the area of entrepreneurship in higher education. We will also allow time for final questions and comments (5 minutes). By the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have experience identifying and measuring entrepreneurship, and will generate at least one issue to further explore in terms of corporatization in higher education.

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