Entrepreneurial Education in Germany Jutta Günther, Ilka Ritter IWH ...

“scientific specialization”, and on the “target group”, i.e. whether the entrepreneurship
teaching is aimed to educate future entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurship researchers. In
addition to this, we collected the following information via Internet, Email contact, and phone
calls.
2. Characteristics of HEI providing entrepreneurial education
2.1. General characteristics of the HEI
As mentioned above, we included 49 HEI in the survey of which seven are private, stateapproved
HEI. Among them, we identified different types (universities, technical universities,
universities of applied sciences, and business schools). 4 The majority of HEI dealing with
entrepreneurial education falls into the category of universities of applied sciences (25),
followed by universities (18) of which one is an open university (Fernuniversität Hagen).
There are four technical universities and two “business schools” in our data set. Business
Schools are not subject to official statistics in Germany. In Germany, the official statistics
distinguish the following types of HEI: Universities (Universitäten), Universities of Applied
Sciences (Fachhochschulen), Teacher Training Colleges (Pädagogische Hochschulen),
Colleges of Theology (Theologische Hochschulen), and Colleges of Art (Kunsthochschulen).
Figure 1 Overview of HEI in Germany 2006/2007 1
Universities
(incl. 4 Technical Universities, TU)
Total
number of
HEI*
Students enrolled
2006/2007*
4
Number of HEI with
entrepreneurship
education
103 1,372,893 22
(incl. 4 TU)
Universities of Applied Sciences 206 570,712 25
*refers to official statistics (Federal Statistical Office of Germany), 2006/2007.
1
Excluding teacher training colleges (Pädagogische Hochschulen), Colleges of Theology (Theologische
Hochschulen), and Colleges of Art (Kunsthochschulen).
There are HEI of very different age in our sample. The oldest HEI was founded in 1472
(Ludwig-Maximilians University München) and the youngest in 2003 (Zeppelin University –a
small private university) 5 . Overall, ten HEI were founded between 1472 and 1900, 16 were
4 We define a “business school” as an independent HEI offering programs solely or predominantly in the field of
business administration. In general, there do not (yet) exist many business schools in Germany. In some cases it
was not obvious whether a HEI is business school, a university or a university of applied sciences. In case of
doubt, we interviewed the relevant HEI and asked which category they would ascribe themselves to.
5
University of Duisburg-Essen was also created in 2003, but it was a fusion of two existing universities in
North-Rhine Westphalia (Ruhrgebiet).