Entrepreneurship program earns top-tier honorsApril 22, 2004Cynthia J. Moritzcjmoritz@syr.edu
The Martin J. Whitman School of Management’s Program in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises is one of the top 13 entrepreneurship programs in the nation, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. The Whitman School’s program moved up from the second tier, where it ranked last year.
“We are very proud of the progress made with our entrepreneurship program over the past 11 years, and are also humbled to be mentioned among the best. We see our program as an entrepreneurial venture,” says Michael Morris, Witting Chair in Entrepreneurship in the Whitman School. “The challenge for us is to continue to raise the bar, and to never stop innovating.”
Other schools in the top tier are the University of Arizona, Babson College, University of California-Berkeley, Columbia University, University of Maryland, DePaul University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Ohio State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Southern California and the Smeal Colllege of Business at Pennsylvania State University. Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which were in the top tier last year, dropped to the second tier in this year’s rankings.
More than 825 programs were researched between September and December 2003 for the magazine’s study, which was conducted by TechKnowledge Point Corp., a California-based entrepreneurship research and referral exchange. The final rankings were based on more than 70 criteria, including course offerings, teaching and research faculty and business-community outreach.
Morris lists some of the changes in the program that enabled the Whitman School to move up in the rankings:
Entrepreneurship efforts began within the Whitman School in the early 1990s, following a market study of other entrepreneurship programs in which more than 200 programs were examined in terms of curriculum, organization and management.
The first undergraduate course, Introduction to Entrepreneurship, was established in 1994. Following the addition of several new courses, both an undergraduate major and an undergraduate minor (for non-business majors) in entrepreneurship were established in 1998. In 1999, a course titled Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management was made a requirement for all undergraduate business majors. A course titled Visiting Executives in Entrepreneurship was added in the same year. Endowed by SU alumnus John Couri, this course brings successful entrepreneurs to the campus to discuss specific aspects of entrepreneurship.
More recently, courses in Entrepreneurial Marketing, Emerging Enterprise Consulting, Imagination and Entrepreneurial Finance have been created. Undergraduate students also compete to participate in the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Internship Program.
