The need for the inclusion of entrepreneurship in our Nigerian architectural education

Abstract

Nigeria's emerging economy is driven by young people who have discovered opportunities in new technologies that has given rise to entrepreneurial skills and enterprises. Architecture as a discipline and profession is technology driven and there is an urgent need to bridge the gap between architectural education and practice to make our young architects more relevant with this current trend. There is a strong observation that the existing curriculum structure for teaching and practicing architecture is inadequate to address the challenges of today. The aim of this research was to establish the importance of the inclusion of entrepreneurship in the architectural curriculum in the schools of Architecture. We hypothesized that inclusion of entrepreneurship in architecture teaching curriculum will increase the development of entrepreneurial culture; promote enterprise; sensitize students in the diversification in architecture; and foster entrepreneurial mind-set through theory and practice. A survey was carried out using 150 participants made up of 100 students and 30 lecturers drawn from three universities (federal, state and private) and 20 practicing architects in Enugu Metropolis using a convenient sampling method. Using Chi-square statistics to test the hypotheses, all the hypotheses were confirmed. The results were discussed, and recommendations made.