Does entrepreneurship education matter for the enhancement of entrepreneurial intention?

The purpose of this paper was to establish whether rural university students in South Africa who have had different levels of exposure to entrepreneurship education differ in entrepreneurial intention, attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms and entrepreneurial competencies. A survey was conducted using a convenience and purposive sample of 355 South African university students from a comprehensive university in the Eastern Cape and a university of technology in Limpopo. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data, which were analysed by means of SPSS. The respondents with three years’ exposure to entrepreneurship education were statistically significantly different from those with six months’ exposure to entrepreneurship education and those with no exposure to entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurial intention, attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms. In addition, the respondents with three years’ exposure to entrepreneurship education were statistically significantly different from those with no exposure to entrepreneurship education in entrepreneurial competencies in terms of the ability to recognise and evaluate opportunities in the market. The results suggest that long term exposure to entrepreneurship education is vital in stimulating entrepreneurial intention.