| The Consortium for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises and Entrepreneurship Education |
| Grant: | P116J080038 |
| Start: | 09/01/2008 |
| End: | 08/31/2012 |
| Funding: | $ 180,000 |
| EU-U.S. Atlantis Program | |
| | 2010 abstract | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Partners: Appalachian State University (North Carolina); University of North Florida (Florida); Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg (Germany); Universidad de Alicante (Spain); Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). The Small and Medium-Size Enterprises and Entrepreneurship Education (SMEEE) Consortium was originally funded in 2003 under the E.U.-U.S. Mobility Program. The project proposed a consortium of schools to exchange scholars and develop educational materials in a collection of academic disciplines related to the formation and operation of small and medium-size enterprises and for the training of future entrepreneurs. The number of mobile students, currently totaling the equivalent of 170 semesters, has far exceeded original expectations. Our goal is to provide a broad theme that can integrate the full range of academic disciplines associated with building and operating a successful global small to medium-sized enterprise. These disciplines include management, strategy, finance, marketing, law, accounting, and economics. The breadth of the academic disciplines participating in this consortium and our existing strength in entrepreneurship education distinguishes this consortium from the business consortia previously funded under the European Community-U.S. Program. SMEEE has four objectives for the next four years. First, the program will move at least 48 students between the six transatlantic partners, 24 in each direction. The average historical rate over the last five years is almost three times that level. Next, the program will improve the pre-departure orientation given our students. Third, the hosting partners must develop better programs to integrate visiting students into their academic and social environments. Finally, the program plans to develop tools to improve tracking to support student academic advising. This will become more important as the program shifts its emphasis more towards year-long mobility. Program staff members believe that these enhancements will, when taken together, result in an academic and cultural experience that can serve as a role model for other institutions. Project evaluation is structured to focus on three dimensions: student mobility and services, curriculum and advising, and faculty and staff mobility. Thirty objectives have been defined in the area of student mobility and services. In addition to measuring the number of SMEEE-sponsored exchanges, the consortium will use an enhanced set of pre-departure and post-exchange surveys to evaluate the quality of the student experiences. Fourteen curriculum and advising objectives for the funding period are specified. The initial activities will focus on the design of the online advising support system. An ongoing review of transferable and equivalent courses will be conducted. Faculty mobility will be used to enhance the academic ties fostered in the first four years, and the valuable cooperative instructional activities and modules that also benefit our short-term exchange programs will be supported. The staff exchanges may include representatives from either university or college-level student service personnel.
ONLINE REFERENCE: |
Mark McKnew
Clemson University
Matthias Muck
Otto-Friedrich Universität
Jeffery Steagall
University of North Florida
Bryan Toney
Appalachain State University
Frank Janssen
Université Catholique de
Juan Llopis
Universidad de Alicante |
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