The University’s entrepreneur education program has received national recognition from Entrepreneur magazine.
According to the magazine’s Web site, www.entrepreneur.com, more than 700 entrepreneurship programs were researched from September 2002 to December 2002. The rankings are based on more than 30 criteria, including course offerings, teaching and research faculty, business-community outreaches and degrees and certificates offered.
The University’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Education was ranked fifth in the nation in faculty opinions. The University also was ranked in the top 12 for quality of the overall entrepreneurship program.
“The first 12 schools have comparable offerings and resources, and together represent the top tier of the very best programs in the country,” the Web site said.
Carol Carter, Institute of Entrepreneurial Education and Family Business Studies assistant director, said the recognition reflects positively on the University as a whole.
“It shows that we’re moving in the right direction in a time when a lot of the news about the Louisiana educational system is negative,” Carter said. “A lot of schools don’t even have an entrepreneur focus, and we’re proud to say that ours has been recognized.”
Carter said one of the strengths of the University’s entrepreneur education program is its variety of course topics, including small business management, franchising and independent study programs.
Robert Justis, director of the institute’s international franchise forum, agreed the breadth of the program is what makes it attractive both to students and faculty.
“We’ve got a really good start-up business program, and our faculty has a very broad range of expertise,” Justis said.
Carter said the entrepreneur department works with the community with initiatives such as Women Mean Business, which addresses the special challenges businesswomen face, and Family Business Forums, which addresses certain concerns over running family businesses.
“It’s beneficial to everyone,” Carter said. “It is a process, but recognition like this brings more interest to the program.”