Management junior Merlin Ward said a new entrepreneurship program at Grand Canyon University has him thinking about leaving ASU.
Ward said his courses here focus more on getting students ready for corporate jobs than starting and managing businesses.
"I feel my time would be better spent doing the entrepreneur route rather than some of the other classes offered at ASU," he said.
The classes at GCU, a private university in Phoenix, could give Ward the skills he said he needs to successfully run a planned luxury limousine service for bar-goers.
About 100 students will attend GCU's College of Entrepreneurship University starting in January.
The school will teach basic skills such as finance and accounting in the first two years and the fundamentals of starting and running a business in the final two, said founder and entrepreneur-in-residence Peter Burns.
Burns, who taught entrepreneurship classes at ASU last year, pitched the idea of the college to the W.P. Carey School of Business twice. He was rejected both times.
The business school declined the offer because it already offers an entrepreneurship certificate program and the subject isn't a suitable undergraduate major, said Dean Robert Mittelstaedt.
An entrepreneurship degree won't provide students with the necessary skills to start their own businesses or work for someone else, Mittelstaedt said.
"They will come back and say they don't know enough," he said.
Burns disagreed, saying his college's degree would teach students the abilities they need for success.
Having an entrepreneurship degree also gives the field credibility, said Michael Gerber, chairman of the college.
The new college also has an advantage over other programs because all 30 faculty members have successfully run their own businesses, Burns said.
"You can't just teach entrepreneurship out of a book," he added.
The classes are also taught mostly online so students across the globe can attend the college, Gerber said.
The degree satisfies a growing interest in entrepreneurship as a career, he said.
"More people wish to go into business for themselves, but they don't have the skills," Gerber said.
The college will offer only a bachelor's degree at first and a masters' degree a year later.
The new college will also offer a big financial incentive for students to complete a degree.
In their senior year, students can apply for money to fund their businesses from a $4.5 million University Entrepreneurs Fund, Burns said.
In return for giving students money, the college takes a stake in their ventures.
This means the fund can increase if the businesses take off, Burns said.
Without these funds, students that don't usually have access to venture capital would find it harder to start businesses, Ward said.
"I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for equity in the business," he said. "When [the college] collects on the equity, it gives the same opportunity to the students behind you."
Reach the reporter at: Grayson.Steinberg@asu.edu.
