It was a memorable experience for AUN doctoral candidate in Business Administration, Mr. Theoneste Manishimwe, when he presented a proposal titled "Building Entrepreneurship Research Partnerships in the African Diaspora" at the 19th Annual National Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Deans' Roundtable Summit held from June 2 to June 4, last year.
Mr. Theoneste Manishimwe collaborated with a former faculty member at the AUN School of Business, Dr. Lukman Raimi, in writing the proposal, which was presented virtually via Zoom on June 3, 2022
Mr. Theoneste explained that the proposal was presented based on a demand. "Earlier, at a conference in 2021 at the 10th CBER-MEC International Conference on Business and Economic Development (ICBED), I presented a research paper on 'investigating entrepreneurial orientation and desire for self-employment of students in selected tertiary institutions, in the Northeast, Nigeria (DOI:10.24052/BMR/V12NU01/ART-03).
"I focused my research back then on four categories of tertiary institutions like federal colleges of education, polytechnics, universities and federal University of technology. I think the paper caught the interest of so many people who were present at the conference, because of my findings, hence I was requested by one of the executive board members, Dr. Jo-Ann Rolle, the Immediate Past President of HBCU, and the Dean of School of Business at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, to write and present a proposal relating to that subject matter at the upcoming HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit," he said.
Furthermore, Theoneste said, "I was asked if I can develop a proposal based on that research, so I developed this proposal to partner with HBCU and presented it in June 2022."
In the proposal, Mr. Theoneste (the lead author) and Dr. Lukman demonstrated that even though directives to incorporate entrepreneurship education into tertiary institution curricula have been implemented long ago, its impact has produced mixed results in the developing countries, particularly in Africa. The practical significance of entrepreneurship contribution through the education system is still unclear and below expectations.
The main objectives of the proposal are to build the capacities of African tertiary institutions and Entrepreneurship Development Centers (EDCs) by integrating experiential learning into their entrepreneurship modules and address the factors that contribute to students' insufficient level of entrepreneurial orientation in African tertiary institutions, as found in Nigerian tertiary institutions, among others.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are higher education institutions in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to primarily serve the African-American community.
The theme of the 19th Annual National HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit held from June 2 to June 4, 2022, was "HBCUs Building Bigger Impact."