SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMS AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA: STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Abstract

The growing economic challenges in Nigeria has foster sustainability as a critical concern across all sectors of society, including entrepreneurship education. This study investigated the sustainable practices in entrepreneurship education programs at universities towards economic challenges in Nigeria. Specifically, the study determined the need for sustainable practices in entrepreneurship education programs, Strategies for adopting sustainable practices in entrepreneurship education programs and factors influencing the adoption of sustainable practices in entrepreneurship education programs. The study was carried out in federal universities in the South-East. Two hypotheses guided the research. The study adopted a survey research design and was conducted at federal universities in South-East Nigeria. The population for the study was 156 comprising 84 entrepreneurship education lecturers and 72 instructors in south east. A structured questionnaire having 5-points Likert Scale options, consisting of 31 items was used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used to determine the internal consistency of the items of the instrument, which yielded an overall reliability coefficient of 0.85. The data collected were analysed using the mean and the T-test for testing the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The result shows that that sustainable practice of entrepreneurship education programs in universities will play a key role in addressing the economic challenges in Nigeria. It was recommended that, the suggested strategies for the sustainable practices should be maintained in entrepreneurship education programs of university.