Problem with Entrepreneurship Education - One-Off - or Widespread Malaise?

We recently received the following e-mail from a student of entrepreneurship:

The course I am currently studying (Entrepreneurship) is under new management. Until last year it was a course that encouraged individuality and basically everything that Ernesto talks about in the third section of his book. Students were encouraged to take hold of their own learning, they were not babied, they were not inundated with theories and concepts of business but rather encouraged to learn them and more often encouraged to get out in the real world and learn real lessons. The course was passively mentored and whilst help was there it had to be sourced more personally to really take advantage of what was there to learn.

My dilemma is that under this new management has come a total death to these philosophies. Students are being babied, forced to learn theories and concepts rather than get hands on experience in the world of entrepreneurship. They are being monitored closely to ensure they are learning all the lessons that the organisation deems important rather than using their own initiative and motivation to learn what they need to know.

I really feel that the entrepreneurial thinking that was facilitated through this course is becoming extinct and rather the institution is setting students up with skills to fit well into an organisation.

I know this is probably quite off the topic of what your people are use to dealing with but I thought if you could help us it might pose more credit than coming from us the students.

So is this a sign of a widespread problem in enterprise education? Is it a problem in education more generally? Or is it just a 'one-off' that we should not worry too much about.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment or entering the debate on our public forum at http://sirolli.informe.com