What fosters entrepreneurs at university colleges?

Questions we care about (objectives)
In the wake of the second academic revolution (Etzkowitz, 2003), many important questions have been raised seeking the answer to how higher educational institutions can fulfil their new role in society. Catalysed by governmental regulation, where many higher educational institutions have been imposed to foster entrepreneurs, a need for knowledge in terms of the Where, What, When, Who and How of entrepreneurship education (Hindle, 2007) has emerged.
In the light of the context dependency of entrepreneurship education (Hannon P. D., 2006), the first main question of the following paper is to what extent the knowledge generated at the universities can be transferred directly to a university college context?
The second question raised is centered on the “what” of entrepreneurship education relating to content: How can educational elements that enable and promote entrepreneurship at university colleges be identified in order to solidify the entrepreneurial education?
If cases where students have become entrepreneurs are studied, as a method to identify entrepreneurship supporting and enabling educational elements, a future research question is raised:
“How do student entrepreneurs at university colleges use their education in their business?
This leads to the following sub-questions: What characterises education at university colleges? How can use of education be defined? And how can use of education be measured?
Approach
Based on studies of secondary data, including academic articles and public documents, the following article deductively explores the contextual factors affecting higher education institutions in relation to entrepreneurship education and the issues that arise in this connection. Furthermore, a method to identify existing educational content at university colleges that enables and promote entrepreneurship is sought.
Results
In terms of the the question raised, the answer is not found, though the answer to where and who seems transferable, given the nature of the answers provided by Handscombe et al. in their arcticle from 2008 (Handscombe, Rodriguez - Falcon, & Patterson, 2008).
Due to the context dependency of “the right way” of conducting entrepreneurship education (Hannon P. D., 2006), it seems inevitable that each education initially has to be studied individually in order to identify educational elements that enable and promote entrepreneurship.
Under the assumption that entrepreneurial opportunities are individual (Sarasvathy, The Bird in hand principle: Who am I , What do I know, Who do I know, 2008)and entrepreneurship by virtue of its nature is a result of effectuation (Sarasvathy, What makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial, 2001), it seems contradictory to use quantitative research methods to look for causal relations between educational elements and student entrepreneurs, therefore a qualitative approach is suggested.
Implications: In order to answer all of the questions raised, further research is needed.
Value/Originality
The originality of this article lies in the differentiation between education at universities and university colleges and the focus on the latter, raising the question of how much knowledge can be transferred between the two, and in the quest to solidify entrepreneurship education by looking at existing curriculum content that appears to enable and support entrepreneurship.