Abstract

University education is no longer a passport to secure employment for graduates. This requires young graduates to consider entrepreneurship and self-employment as a viable career option. While the number of entrepreneurship education programmes is growing, their impact is under researched and studies paint an ambiguous picture of the impact of entrepreneurship education. Understanding the determinants of entrepreneurial intention, therefore, becomes important. Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study investigates the impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention of students in higher education in Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The sample for this study comprises of final year Business Administration and Marketing students from selected private Universities. The data collected was analysed using correlation analysis. The results show that participants (students) of entrepreneurship education programs are more likely to have higher intention to form their own businesses compared to non-participants. Furthermore, attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control mediate the relationship between Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial intentions. The findings of this report contribute both to the Theory of Planned Behaviour and to the field of entrepreneurship education. On the whole, the findings derived suggest that, in order to promote graduate entrepreneurship, multifaceted and concerted efforts will be required from policy makers (to help shape institutions), practitioners (to devise and implement collaborative support mechanisms), educators (to design and deliver appropriate Entrepreneurship Education content and pedagogy) and scholars (to evaluate and develop knowledge)