Engineering Deans’ Perspectives on the Value of Entrepreneurial Thinking in Engineering Education

The proliferation of entrepreneurship degree programs, centers, and on-campus programs implicitly signal that a variety of stakeholders are involved in advancing these efforts. Among these stakeholders are the deans of engineering colleges since they are primary agents for leading change efforts throughout an institutional context. To date, little literature has explored their perspectives on the value of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking within engineering. In this study, we present the results of conducting interviews with 23 deans of engineering colleges representing three types of institutions: R1 Public (8), R1/R2 Private (5), and primarily undergraduate-focused (10). During the 30-minute interviews, deans discussed how they onboard and support junior faculty, and the role of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking in engineering colleges. A thematic analysis of their responses revealed that, overall, engineering deans believe an entrepreneurial mindset can support both students and faculty and expressed their desire to continue scaling their institutions’ entrepreneurship initiatives. The findings indicate that deans value entrepreneurial mindset because of its potential to enhance many of the activities that occur within an institutional context. The findings of this study add to the body of literature on this topic by documenting the perspectives of critical change agents connected to this topic.