Entrepreneurship Education in an Entrepreneurial Community

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of programmes of enterprise education and technology transfer at the University of Cambridge in response to the growth of the Cambridge Cluster and public policy programmes designed to enhance the economic impact of higher education institutions. The authors highlight the way education programmes developed by the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning uniquely reflect the needs of nascent high-tech entrepreneurs by using local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angels and start-up support specialists as instructors; by gearing the curriculum to issues facing high-tech ventures; and by offering ‘extra-curricular’ programmes that fit the scheduling needs of the PhD students, post-docs and research staff who constitute the intended audience. This examination provides an interesting case study of how a mature high-tech cluster can shape university entrepreneurship programmes. It also illustrates how new educational and technology transfer programmes have pulled the university and its nascent high-tech entrepreneurs into a closer relationship with the dense network of firms and people who make up the Cambridge Cluster.