Entrepreneurship Program Ranking Rises
Bradley ranked 19th among top undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in nation.
09/19/2013 6:06 PM
Bradley University’s entrepreneurship program has risen in a national ranking of the Top 25 undergraduate programs in the nation to 19th (up from 23rd in 2013), according to The Princeton Review.
Based on surveys sent to school administrators at more than 2,000 institutions from April to June in 2013, the lists recognize 50 programs in all –- 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate – for their excellence in entrepreneurship education.
President Joanne Glasser, says Bradley is focused on providing students a world class educational opportunity. “To be recognized among the top 20 in the country, is just one more acknowledgement of our continued commitment to academic excellence.”
Bradley’s Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Foster College of Business both work independently on projects and collaboratively on joint initiatives. The Foster College offers an entrepreneurship major as well as Project Springboard while the Turner School offers an entrepreneurship minor, the “Entrepreneurship Scholar” designation and The Brave Pitch project.
The Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is the newest part of the entrepreneurship program at Bradley. It was opened last September and was the first school of its type in the nation. It is a stand-alone academic unit, offering students in all disciplines opportunities to study entrepreneurship and innovation in classrooms and experiential settings. Entrepreneurship education is historically restricted to students studying business or engineering, and is housed in a specific college, while the Turner School is available to students throughout the University.
Dr. Gerald Hills, Bradley’s Turner Chair of Entrepreneurship, says it’s an exciting development, to again be among the Top 25 universities. “This provides evidence that our new School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is off to a good beginning. All five of our colleges deserve the credit for working together.”
Hills received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 32nd annual Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference. He is the founder and president of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which is on 240 campuses and holds an annual conference that attracts 1,400 attendees. He also is a co-founder and first president of both the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the American Marketing Association Academic Council.
The Princeton Review chooses the schools based on a wide range of institutional data it evaluates for this project. Schools are asked about the levels of their commitment to entrepreneurship inside and outside the classroom, the percentage of their faculty, students, and alumni actively and successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, the number of their mentorship programs, and their funding for scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies and projects. The Princeton Review has reported these lists annually since 2006 in partnership with Entrepreneur Media Inc., publisher of Entrepreneur magazine.
The top entrepreneurship program lists are posted on The Princeton Review’s website atwww.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur. The magazine’s feature article will appear in its October issue, available on newsstands September 24.