Policies and practices for entrepreneurial education: The Malaysian experience

Abstract

Entrepreneurship education is considered one of the key instruments that increases the entrepreneurial attitudes of potential entrepreneurs. The Malaysian government has made tremendous efforts in promoting entrepreneurship education by improving the current policy on entrepreneurship education, providing various entrepreneurship programs to increase the number of young entrepreneurs, and highlighting the need to empower entrepreneurship education among graduates of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). However, despite the policies implemented by the Malaysian government, studies done on the effectiveness of policy implementation are still lacking. This paper therefore aims to examine the achievements of the Strategic Plan on Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (2013-2015) on promoting entrepreneurial education in Malaysian HEIs. The achievements were measured through Key Performance Indicators that were developed by the Ministry of Education. A set of questionnaires has been adapted and modified from the list of Key Performance Indicators. The questionnaire consists of 6 sections that represent the six thrusts in the Strategic Plan on Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (2013-2015). 20 set of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents from the Entrepreneurship Centers in 20 public Malaysian HEIs via emails. Completed data was collected from 10 respondents who represent 10 public HEIs in Malaysia. Some data was also retrieved from the Ministry of Education’s database to provide a thorough analysis of the key performance indicators (KPIs). Findings of this study noted that four out of six thrusts, including the first thrust, which is to empower the Entrepreneurship Center in every HEI, the second thrust, which is to provide holistic and well-planned entrepreneurial education and programs, the fourth thrust, which is to enhance the competency of HEIs’ entrepreneurship trainers and facilitators, and the sixth thrust, which is to increase the effect of the implementation of HEIs’ entrepreneurial education and development, have been successfully achieved. Meanwhile, the other two thrusts that include the third thrust, which is to empower entrepreneurial development programs, and the fifth thrust, which is to provide a conducive environment and ecosystem for entrepreneurship development, have failed to be achieved. Overall, it has been shown that the efforts taken by the Malaysian government in promoting entrepreneurship education among HEI graduates still require some improvement. Therefore, it is important for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to join hands in making sure that the current policies and programs as well as the curriculum and content on entrepreneurship are improved.