The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Friend or Foe
We all recall our first encounter with IE university; an international university that provides a high quality education paired with an entrepreneurial spirit. All throughout their promotion IE pushes those two core ideals, internationality and entrepreneurship. It is undeniable that the internationality of the university is one of its key points of appeal, everyday we are constantly exposed to the realities of the world through both our professors and our peers allowing us to be understanding of a myriad of cultures and perspectives; entrepreneurship however, has a different way of forming part of our student experience.
The university and it’s institutions are perfectly designed to encourage, and indeed, enable entrepreneurial projects from the student body. Throughout many of our compulsory classes (namely business management and presentation skills) the curriculum makes us plan and create a project or company in an effort to ignite the entrepreneurial spark within students. While this has in fact produced a number of successful business ventures, I find that there are some flaws in the way the mission of an entrepreneurial spirit is pursued. This piece aims to criticism the university’s approach to entrepreneurship in an effort to understand whether or not this methodology enables students to start their own ventures.
The concept of entrepreneurship permeates every facet of every degree in this university; even those students who are not enrolled in a business degree will be expected to at least plan a venture during coursework. In the business management module, for instance, students from a variety of degrees are required to collaborate to create a business plan.
This coursework exists within the context of a competition wherein the best business plans from each business management class wins the opportunity to compete for the chance to present the business to investors. In this respect (along with other opportunities to be discussed later on) the university does an amazing job at facilitating the process of entrepreneurship; this sets IE apart from other universities which rarely provide such substantial support (especially when it comes to networking) for student initiatives. The opportunity to finance and make a project a reality is a very unique to IE; The issue I see however lies in the way the entrepreneurial spirit is pursued.
Through select courses the university is making every student undertake an entrepreneurial project, regardless of the student’s interest in the realm of business. It is undeniable that we are provided with every skill necessary to undertake an entrepreneurial venture (business management makes sure of that regardless of each individual student’s degree).
While it is true that this system has produced a number of projects that have gone on to be quite successful, I would argue that it actually diminishes the entrepreneurial spirit the university is trying to create. By essentially forcing every student to adopt a startup mentality, the university artificially creates an entrepreneurial spirit throughout the school.
While this is a sentiment that encourages students who want to start a business to actually fall through with it, I would argue that it also attaches negative connotations to not being an entrepreneur or a businessperson. This in a sense makes many students, especially those students that are studying a degree that is not business, feel neglected because of this near obsession with entrepreneurship.
This is done in two ways: The coursework mentioned above; and the opportunities within the scope of internships. Many of the opportunities that we get through the communications pushed by the talent and careers department are business and/or startup focused. This is amazing for business students and those who wish to engage in the private sector, but to those which have no interest in business the few options presented create a sense of neglect.
Many of the opportunities for those who are not invested in the private sphere are minimal and those which are present are only available to students that have already graduated. By constantly reinforcing the business mindset at the core of our university’s values many students feel unsupported by the university. Again this is not to say that IE does not support all students; many professors help non business students access internships that would otherwise not be available-- namely through contacts with NGOs and IGOs.
And the university also provides great conferences and seminars for those interested in international affairs, architecture and design. But it is undeniable that there is a very noticeable business and entrepreneurship focus throughout our university, which at its core is not a bad thing, it is problematic however when a noticeable part of the student population (who may or may not be interested in these ventures) feels almost forgotten.
The vision of a university that is one of the most international in the world is one of the things that sets IE apart from other institutions of higher education; The entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of the university has also allowed IE to make a name for itself by pushing an innovative learning style.
These two principles are essential to the functioning and direction of IE, but it does seem like one is being favoured over the other. The intense business focus of the university is not a bad thing per-se, because it allows future business people to have all the tools, support and connections they need to make their project a success; what is problematic however is the neglect of other degrees and interests. By pushing an entrepreneurial/business spirit so vehemently some students may feel like their interests are not as important.
While the inception of IE comes from a business school, the university cannot be treated as a business school, wherein it is expected that every student will in some way be connected to the world of business-- whether that be through entrepreneurship or by engaging in pre established corporations.
I don't think that it is necessary to drop the entrepreneurial spirit in IE, I simply believe that in order for the university to ‘progress’ in a sense it is essential to devote the same amount of resources to every department-- I do not mean this to say that every degree should permeate every other degree, rather that the academia in each degree should be just as developed as it is in the case of business.
The university is focused on internationality and entrepreneurship, but this in no way means that every student should be an entrepreneur, nor that every student should go into the public sector of international affairs; But the way the university pushes it’s ideals makes it seem like being an entrepreneurship is, in a way, better.
So while the university does push the diversity found in internationality, it almost seems like we are expected to all be entrepreneurs and business people as opposed to having diversity in career paths. As I see it entrepreneurship and the business mindset of the university is not a problem, there is a problem however with expecting every student to be an entrepreneur.