The Geography of Higher Education in Québec, Canada

Annex A. Measuring the influence of entrepreneurial education on the mindset of students

This annex presents the analysis of the impact of entrepreneurial education on the mindset of students, done in co-operation with Massimo Loi, from the University of Oslo. The analysis is based on the Entrepreneurial Education survey, reported below, administered to a sample of students at higher education institutions in Québec. The results inform Chapter 2 of the Review of Québec

The methods used for the analysis include:

• Cohen's effect-size, to determine whether the average value of indicators observed in students who did not follow entrepreneurial activities differ statistically significantly from those observed in students who did follow entrepreneurial activities;

• Weighted regression analysis, to establish whether the conclusions based on Cohen´s effect size are confirmed after controlling for respondents´ gender, age and education enrolment. The regression analysis was performed assigning a weight of 1.31 to each respondent exposed to entrepreneurial education and of 0.81 to each respondent not exposed to entrepreneurial education. Overall, the two groups of respondents had the same weight (0.5) in the regression analysis.

Descriptive results

As of December 2022, 290 students responded to the survey. The final analysis is based on 277 respondents, omitting 13 outliers. The descriptive results are the following:

• Exposure to Entrepreneurial Education: 106 respondents (38.3%) reported having participated in entrepreneurial activities; 171 respondents (61.7%) reported not having participated in entrepreneurial activities;

• Gender: 179 respondents (63.93%) identified as female, and 101 respondents (36.06%) identified as male; 10 respondents did not report their gender;

• Age: respondents were born between 1970 to 2004, with the majority born between 1992 and 2002. The analysis showed 13 outliers, born between 1970 and 1976. These outliers are outside the 1.5*IQR interval and were dropped from the econometric analysis;

• Level of Education: respondents represented the four levels of studies in the province: 128 at undergraduate level (44.14%); 73 at graduate level (25.17%); 35 in doctoral studies (12.07%); and 54 at the college/Cégep level (18.62%).

The Entrepreneurial Education (EE) survey

Exposure to entrepreneurship education

• Have you ever attended or participated in formal and/or informal learning opportunities about entrepreneurship?

Financial and economic literacy

• I am able to estimate the financial resources that I need to make a project successful

• I can manage a budget

• I know how to prevent myself from spending too much

• I know how and where to find financial guidance if ever I need it

Creativity

• I improvise if I do not have the right tool for a task

• I can invent new ways to do things

• I can creatively adjust to changes in plans and priorities

Working with others

• I do all that I can to meet people who can be important to me

• It is important to me to be actively involved in the development of my community

• I am a believer in taking chances

• I can easily convince others to engage in my activities

• I can easily ask others for help when starting new projects

Motivation and perseverance

• After a lot of setbacks, I find it hard to continue

• I am often unsure about what I want to do with my life

• I avoid taking risks

• I routinely evaluate the level of risk, and find ways to mitigate risk

Information management and creative thinking

• I often make novel connections and perceive new or emergent relationships between various pieces of information.

• I am good at “connecting dots”

• I am always actively looking for new information

Self-awareness and self-efficacy

• I know my strengths and weaknesses

• I am reflective about my life

• I routinely evaluate my performance, finding ways to improve in the future

Collaboration skills, planning skills, and ethical thinking/behaviours

• When I am working in a group, I ask my group members for feedback

• I actively seek expert opinion on my work

• I believe that companies can achieve profit while also making a positive social impact

• I typically break big tasks down into subtasks and deadlines

• I think about how my actions might impact current and future generations