Teaching Entrepreneurship in Undergraduate Courses in Accounting Sciences

Abstract

Nowadays, it appears that entrepreneurship has had an ever-increasing importance in the world, because of the many changes that have been taking place, especially in labor relations. Several countries have undertaken actions to include teaching entrepreneurship in their curriculum structures in primary, secondary and higher education, being aware that the entrepreneur is one of the elements that provide rising conditions of employment and income. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to identify if the culture of entrepreneurship is practiced in undergraduate courses in accounting sciences in major institutions of higher education in Brazil, focusing on federal universities. The research is characterized as descriptive and qualitative. The sample analysed involved twenty-seven federal institutions, and each of them represents a unit of the federation. As a result, it became evident that the issue of entrepreneurship is present as very incipient in educational projects of the institutions surveyed, but there is a trend towards the implementation in their syllabus strutures. It was concluded, finally, that further study is necessary, awareness and entrepreneurship dissemination on the part of public institutions of higher education for accounting sciences courses, to encourage the accounting professionals to develop their potential in supporting entrepreneurs and the development of the country.