After three years of planning, the U now offers an entrepreneurship major for students interested in starting their own businesses.
High student demand prompted the Utah Entrepreneur Center, a section of the David Eccles School of business, to offer the major.
“There are a lot of people who want to start their own business, so it’s good that they now have a major,” Ryan Peterson, a business student, said.
Courses for the major have been available since the Spring Semester, but the major was awaiting final approval from the Utah State Board of Regents, which occurred earlier this spring.
Students are already taking advantage of the opportunity. Two students will graduate in the major this December, and 10 will earn the entrepreneurship degree next spring, said Irina Baird, administrative assistant for the center.
Leonard Black, director of the entrepreneur center, said that the major will provide students with knowledge of how to start their own businesses.
The new major’s curriculum will focus on four key skills: writing the business plan, market analysis, financial planning and new ventures.
Black said market analysis is being incorporated because “most think they have a good idea, but they do not do the homework to see if there is a market.”
The center’s staff also wants to encourage interdisciplinary interest in the major.
Students earning professional degrees, such as law or medicine, may hope to open their own practice someday.
“Why not learn to do the accounting right?” Baird said.
The Utah Entrepreneur Center’s history on campus began in 2000 when it hosted the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, a statewide business plan competition.
The center plans to move to Fort Douglas on Aug. 15.