October 26, 2004

UNC-Chapel Hill No. 1 Entrepreneurial U.S. Campus

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was ranked the No. 1 university in the United States for fostering entrepreneurship across its campus in a new survey by Forbes.com and The Princeton Review.

Reasons cited for UNC’s No. 1 ranking in entrepreneurship included:

• UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School offers an undergraduate business degree with a concentration in entrepreneurship.
• UNC’s College of Arts & Sciences will offer a minor in entrepreneurship starting next fall.
• UNC created the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative (CEI) to promote entrepreneurship among faculty, staff and students across the UNC campus.

In “The 25 Most Entrepreneurial Campuses,” Forbes.com wrote that at UNC

“Students are encouraged to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, including The Carolina Entrepreneurship Club and Students in Free Enterprise, and to exploit school-sponsored programs like The Carolina Launch Program, designed to guide students through the process of starting up their own venture. The school also partners with a number of prominent companies, including Ernst & Young, which hosts the Master Panel of Entrepreneurs, during which award-winning entrepreneurs share their stories with students."

The Carolina Launch program is part of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, an $11 million program funded in part by a grant from The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to infuse entrepreneurial approaches to education across the campus and help faculty, staff and students at UNC launch ventures of all kinds – commercial, social and artistic. CEI is managed by The Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and implemented by faculty and departments across the University.

Forbes.com noted that “real-life entrepreneurs” teach on the faculty and cited as examples Clay Hamner, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and CEO of Montrose Capital Corporation, and Randy Myer, founder of Best Friends Pet Care. Buck Goldstein, a former lawyer and founder of several companies, serves as University Entrepreneur in Residence.

“This is an important honor acknowledging the University’s commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels the economic engine of our country and drives social change,” said John D. Kasarda, director of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and the CEI. “We are fortunate to benefit from the curriculum and programs of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative as we spur innovation and foster entrepreneurship at UNC.”

The top 10 universities that “show a commitment to creating programs to encourage young entrepreneurs on campus, as well as looking at how their alumni have fared in the real world” are:

1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2. University of Notre Dame
3. Louisiana State University and A&M College
4. Northeastern University
5. Indiana University - Bloomington
6. Carnegie Mellon University
7. Syracuse University
8. University of Arizona
9. University of Iowa
10. University of New Hampshire

The Princeton Review solicited data from 357 top colleges and universities around the country, asking a series of questions about the various ways they encourage and train undergraduate students to become successful entrepreneurs.

The full list of 25 campuses and editorial coverage, which includes an online video featuring UNC-Chapel Hill, brief profiles of each school and a full explanation of the methodology, can be found at www.forbes.com.