Investigating the role of public universities in imparting communities with entrepreneurship education, knowledge and skills

Abstract

One of the core accountabilities of a university is community service. There are many universities in Zambia today and there is little known about their involvement in empowering the communities around them with entrepreneurship skills. Therefore, this study sets out to investigate the role of public universities in empowering local communities with entrepreneurship skills. In assessing this, the study focused on the role of universities in imparting entrepreneurship education and skills to the community. It further looked at the role of the universities in encouraging entrepreneurship activities. The study adopted a positivism paradigm quantitative design. To achieve the laid down objectives, a survey design was used as a research strategy. Structured questionnaires were randomly distributed to 208 members of the surrounding communities from four universities. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics specifically Linear Regression and Analysis of Variances (ANOVA.) Research results showed that public universities input in empowering surrounding communities with entrepreneurship skills and knowledge is fairly low hence the need for improvement.  The study further revealed that the entrepreneurship knowledge possessed by the community is quite high. Universities need to take interest to ensure that the knowledge acquired by the community is applied.