Promoting Graduate Entrepreneurship in Tunisian Universities
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Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development OECD Reviews on Skills and Competences for Entrepreneurship PROMOTING GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN TUNISIAN UNIVERSITIES A REPORT BY THE OECD LOCAL ECONOMIC AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT (LEED) PROGRAMME ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SMEs AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT OECD REVIEWS ON SKILLS AND COMPETENCES FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTING GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN TUNISIAN UNIVERSITIES ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where governments work together to address the economic, social and governance challenges of globalisation as well as to exploit its opportunities (www.oecd.org/about). The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission takes part in the work of the OECD. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. 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FOREWORD Tunisia is in the course of a critical transition following the revolution that gave the Arab Spring and set the country on the path of a democratically-driven economic transformation. To succeed in this transition, Tunisia must address major problems of unemployment and poverty, which are weighted towards youth in a country with a relatively young population. There are some 200,000 unemployed graduates in Tunisia today and a supply of 80,000 new graduates every year who need employment. At the same time, Tunisia‟s business sector is dominated by traditional firms in traditional sectors with poor growth and income generation opportunities and must open up to new methods, products and markets. Creating jobs for youth and transforming the business sector are two aspects of the same challenge, a challenge that only entrepreneurship can address. The Tunisian government is of course introducing a number of programmes and reforms aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship activity at national and local levels. Access to financing will be improved through new seed funds and loan guarantees, start-ups will be supported through new business incubators and training and coaching to entrepreneurs to increase their skills and competences in this domain. It is important that these measures are made accessible to the university student population and that they have the student population in mind in their design, including the female population, which makes up over 50% of university graduates. At the same time, during the last decade Tunisian universities and universities of applied sciences have been developing their own internal activities for entrepreneurship education and start-up support. It is very encouraging to see that all universities in Tunisia are offering a teaching module in entrepreneurial culture. This cannot be said of many OECD countries. In addition, several Tunisian universities have established entrepreneurship professorships and departments and dedicated start-up support services in the form of entrepreneurship centres, business incubators and technology transfer units. These efforts need to be continued, extended and consolidated if they are to meet the scale of the challenge at hand, building on the best practices in Tunisia and internationally. To this end, the OECD has worked with the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and its partner ministries, together with the German Institute for Overseas Co-operation GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and university representatives in Tunisia on an assessment of the main opportunities and challenges. The study forms part of the OECD‟s review series on Boosting Local Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Creation, delivered by the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development Committee. The reviews are founded on OECD good practice criteria and assessment tools that enable an assessment of universities and policies on the key dimensions of good entrepreneurship provision. The review framework emphasises the following: 3 University strategies that provide clear objectives and incentives for entrepreneurship activities; Adequate financial and human resources for entrepreneurship activities; Dedicated entrepreneurship education and start-up support infrastructures such as entrepreneurship centres and incubators and access to external business support; Entrepreneurship education activities integrated across the curriculum using tailored and interactive teaching methods; Appropriate methods for start-up support such as team building and mentoring; Regular evaluation and monitoring of the results of entrepreneurship activities leading to learning about what is working well and less well and securing adaptations. I am delighted that the OECD has been able to work with the Tunisian authorities and GIZ on this review and I am confident that the analysis, recommendations and learning model examples will be useful both for policymakers and practitioners in Tunisia and for their counterparts in other countries. The review report shows that the key to success will be increasing the intensity of entrepreneurship support for those students who have the motivation, ideas and capabilities to make a success of entrepreneurship. This implies the development of a two-tier university entrepreneurship support system in Tunisia offering at the same time extensive basic teaching in entrepreneurship aimed at increasing understanding of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions in the student population as a whole and deeper business creation and growth support for those ready to go further. The introduction of this system will be assisted by exchange, networking and collaboration amongst universities within Tunisia and internationally on good practices and common approaches. Tunisia is already some steps ahead in the effort to integrate entrepreneurship education in the university curriculum and to provide complementary support and well placed for its refinement based on the messages of this report. I would like to thank GIZ and the Tunisian authorities for the opportunity they gave us to contribute to this effort. Sergio Arzeni Director, OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development Head, OECD Local Economic and Employment Development ProgrammeForeword 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 8 The context of the study ............................................................................................................................... 8 Major findings .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................................................. 9 International learning models .................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1: TUNISIA AT A CROSS-ROADS ......................................................................................... 13 1.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 13 1.2. The Tunisian context ........................................................................................................................... 14 1.3. The OECD review............................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2: SURVEYS OF UNIVERSITY LEADERS, STAFF AND STUDENTS ............................... 17 2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 17 2.2. Survey of university leaders and staff ................................................................................................. 17 2.3. Survey of HEI students ......................................................................................................................