New Initiatives

Amsterdam is the ideal place to study entrepreneurship

UvA has recently created the Centre for Amsterdam Schools of Entrepreneurship (CASE). CASE is a partnership between the two universities in Amsterdam, together with two universities of higher professional education, the municipal government, the regional chamber of commerce and other partners, including many leading businesses. Boosted by substantial launch funding from SenterNovem, the national economic development agency, CASE formally opened in the autumn of 2008. With a 6 million euro budget for 4 years CASE aims to help make the Amsterdam region more enterprising by offering outstanding education in entrepreneurship. Managers, entrepreneurs, and financial decision makers tend to think that top entrepreneurship is not linked to having an academic degree. They assess the percentage of academically trained entrepreneurs to be below twenty percent. This percentage is in reality above sixty percent. While these numbers do not prove that successful entrepreneurship is dependent on education, they do suggest that education potentially enhances the success of entrepreneurs, and this is supported by recent UvA research. Since research has also demonstrated that successful entrepreneurship is a tremendously important facilitator of economic growth, dynamics, labour demand and innovation, one may indeed assume that the social returns from successful entrepreneurship are large. This calls for larger numbers of successful entrepreneurs. However, students, at least in the Netherlands, have shown, so far, little inclination to become entrepreneurs, either now or in the future. This underpins the importance of CASE.

The objective of CASE is to involve as many students in entrepreneurship as possible. To achieve this CASE stimulates and coordinates several curricular and extracurricular educational programmes and student activities. Among these are a first-year course which provides an accessible introduction to the subject, a minor in Entrepreneurship in the third year of the Bachelor's programme and a fully-fledged master's degree in the subject, based upon the already available ‘track'. Guest tutors and coaches from outside have a vital part to play. Further, an extracurricular summer school is run jointly with ABN AMRO, geared specifically towards students who are thinking of starting their own business. Also, communities of ‘alumni entrepreneurs' (the graduates who now run their own businesses) have been created. The involvement of external partners is an essential aspect of CASE.

On Thursday the 22nd of January 2009 CASE has been officially opened by the May or of Amsterdam, Mr Job Cohen. 

www.case-amsterdam.nl
CASE directors
Erik Boer and Prof Mirjam van Praag

Daan Dessing (The Netherlands) - Minor Entrepreneurship

During the second semester last year, I enrolled in the minor Entrepreneurship, the first minor of its kind in the Netherlands organized by the Amsterdam Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE). My attention was drawn to the minor by its advertisement: "Start your own business under the guidance of professional consultants!"

I was approaching the end of my bachelor and I felt the lack of practical experience. Well, after this semester I had plenty... The minor (30 ECs) consisted of three regular courses within the university and a special course ‘Practical Entrepreneurship', which is the main focus of the minor. I formed a team with 3 other students from different academic disciplines. By combining our experience, interests and knowledge of economics, law, psychology and communication we were able to come up with very different ideas, approaches and insights.

We knew in advance that we had to go through every aspect of a business: concept development, market research, marketing, finance, sales, legal matters, dealing with investors and in the end liquidation (an obligatory part of the course). Due to the limited amount of time and capital, the very Dutch idea that we came up with eventually was: Fietskratten. These crates are fixed to your bicycle handlebar so you can easily transport things. We found a Brazilian graffiti artist who transformed all the crates into a unique piece of art.

We were assisted by a business coach from Fortis Bank who helped us take on a more professional attitude and made us more aware that the sky is not always the right limit. The many workshops we attended also provided valuable insights into the way that businesses are run. The challenging environment of academic theory and practical experience really made me enjoy this minor.

When the semester was over and the investors had made a profit of 9%, it was time to look back on the hard work and count my blessings. I had learned many things, such as building something from scratch, being my own boss, working under extreme stress, managing difficulties both internally and externally, actually implementing the theories that I learned: I had a great time ‘entrepreneuring'. I am certain that this experience will help me when my time at the university is over, either within an existing organization or as an independent entrepreneur. I recommend every student to sign up for this unique minor.