Evaluating impact of entrepreneurship education programs

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of Entrepreneurship Education Programs (EEPs) from students’ and educators’ viewpoint to improve the quality of EEPs.

This research applies a qualitative-quantitative methodology. Its sample is included 291 students were selected randomly and 35 educators were chosen by convenience technique from universities of Applied Science and Technology of Iran.

The results revealed that essence of EEPs had a positive direct effect on objectives and content of EEPs; objectives and content of EEPs had a positive direct effect on methods of EEPs; essence of EEPs had a positive direct effect on impact of EEPs; and essence of EEPs had a positive indirect effect on methods through objectives and content based on students’ and educators’ perspective. Moreover, as opposed to educators’, students believed that methods of EEPs have not a positive direct effect on impact, while educators were opponent to students approach about the positive direct effect of essence of EEPs on methods.

The study was limited to Applied Science and Technology universities were selected by convenience sampling method. Similar studies in other universities are needed to be conducted by simple random sampling to evaluate EEPs.

The study recommends policy-makers to be aware of students’ needs of EEPs’ methods, as well inform educators about effective and initiative methods.

Evaluating impact of EEPs based on demand and supply-side viewpoint is the first study conducted in Applied Science and Technology universities of Iran.