Entrepreneurial education increasingly has become a part of higher education, but graduate education has yet to fully embrace the concept or to incorporate the variety of perspectives entrepreneurship might bring to the preparation of advanced masters and doctoral students.  The sharpening focus of entrepreneurship in higher education, particularly graduate education, poses a potential opportunity to improve the preparation of graduate students by capitalizing on the historic contribution of graduate education to the knowledge creation and innovation vital to expanding the country's economic prosperity.  However, entrepreneurship research and scholarship have yet to define the full set of parameters that might guide graduate schools in initiating activities to increase the role that entrepreneurship could play in graduate education.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) conducted a year-long investigation into the relationship between entrepreneurship and graduate education with the generous support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The investigation consisted of an extensive literature review, focused interviews with graduate deans, and a stakeholder’s workshop. The workshop, held in March 2007, convened graduate deans, current and recent entrepreneurship students, entrepreneurs, and leaders of academic/research programs for a dialogue on the topic.  The participants explored an appropriate definition of entrepreneurship in graduate education; identified successful models of incorporating entrepreneurship across graduate curriculum; and discussed future directions for exploring the power of entrepreneurship in graduate education.

CGS published a monograph titled Capitalizing on Innovation: Entrepreneurship and Graduate Education that summarizes the highlights of the extensive literature review, the principal findings from focused interviews with graduate deans, and important perspectives from the stakeholder’s workshop. It also provides recommendations for continuing this conversation about how the graduate dean can “capitalize on innovation” through graduate curriculum in entrepreneurship.