Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intent: a comparative study of the private and government university students

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between educational qualification and entrepreneurial intent (EI) of the students of private and government universities located in the state of Odisha, India.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the responses of 485 students of selected private and government universities in Odisha, India. A multistage random sampling approach has been adopted to collect the data and was tested for the role of different elements relating to education in explaining EI.FindingsThe findings suggest that the private universities are superior to the government universities in their Quality of Entrepreneurship Education (QEE), students' Exposure to Entrepreneurship Education (EEE) and their EI. Business Management and Commerce students have more inclination toward entrepreneurship compared to the students of professional streams like Law, Pharmacy, Engineering etc. Self-employed parents, EEE and Extra-Curricular Activities (ECA) are the significant determinants of EI among the university students; whereas, Academic Achievement (AA) and Socio-economic Status (SES) do not significantly explain their EI. Finally, gender also plays a vital role where male students show higher EI compared to their female counterparts.Practical implicationsThe research provides an understanding of the significance of entrepreneurship education along with ECA in developing EI among government and private university students.Originality/valueThe paper not only empirically presents the major differences between private and government-owned universities while dealing with entrepreneurship development at the university level but also highlights the impact of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the students on their EI.