Teachers’ perspective on institutional barriers to academic entrepreneurship – a case of Uttarakhand state, India

Abstract

The study explores the institutional factors which influence the impact of education in building academic entrepreneurship in higher educational institutes of Uttarakhand state, India. In order to understand the institutional barriers, the author interviewed 68 senior-level educationists, who were working in the capacity of Director General, Professor, Head, or Director in three different universities or their affiliated institutions. Based on the qualitative data obtained from interviews, we identified five major and four minor factors which were influencing the impact of education in building academic entrepreneurship in the state. The major barriers identified were – poor entrepreneurial ecosystem, poor entrepreneurial orientation, and inclination of universities and institutes to prepare students for jobs, inadequate content of the subject, need for training of entrepreneurship faculty, or specialized entrepreneurship faculty and ineffective teaching methodology. The results so obtained were further reviewed and validated on the basis of past research. The study also takes into account the institutional problems in developing academic entrepreneurship in other developing countries and compares the results. The study will help the policy-makers, teachers, and educational institutions to recognize the possible shortfalls in the education system, which eventually result in poor academic entrepreneurship. Suggestions for improvements are included.