American universities aim to prepare their students for their careers. European universities, especially public German universities, follow a primary

Everything Wrong With Teaching Entrepreneurship At Universities.

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2024-11-29 14:30:06

American universities aim to prepare their students for their careers. European universities, especially public German universities, follow a primary goal to prepare their students for a career as well, but in academia, not in the real world.

This may seem nonsensical, considering that 90% of students won't pursue the path laid out for them. But our universities aren't businesses and thus aren't run like them. There are no repercussions if they don't do what most students want or need. Sometimes, you might even get the impression that universities try to do the exact opposite of what's in their students' best interest.

This reaches its extremes when it comes to teaching entrepreneurship. Here, it seems even more nonsensical to teach academic approaches and frameworks. But credit where credit is due: Most (though not all) universities have noticed that. That's why the approach to teaching entrepreneurship is already different from most other subjects. However, it is still taught within the rigid structure of academia, with the same tools as everything else. And if your only tool is a hammer, it doesn't matter whether or not you have realized that you are working with screws instead of nails if you are trying to hammer them nevertheless.

"The [...] counterintuitive point [about founding a startup] is that it's not that important to know a lot about startups. The way to succeed in a startup is not to be an expert on startups, but to be an expert on your users and the problem you're solving for them." – Paul Graham