FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Aydelotte

April 17, 2004

(559) 278-5366 or 246-1717

Fresno State Is Listed in Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2^nd Annual Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities in the United States

Fresno, April 19 – California State University, Fresno is named one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities in the United States, in the May 2004 issue of Entrepreneur magazine.  More than 825 entrepreneurship programs were researched for the study. 

Fresno State appears in the first tier of the list of the top 50 regionally recognized academic programs in the country.   This is the second year Fresno State has received a top rating.  Other campuses repeating in the top tier of regional comprehensive universities are Ball State University; St. Louis University; University of Oregon; and University of Portland

Entrepreneurship education used to be limited to a few courses taught in a few business schools.  Now it’s become much more, including full-fledged doctoral degree programs, university departments, endowed professorships, and even a change in the way entire universities approach educating their students. 

David Newton, CEO of TechKnowledge Point Corp., the Santa Barbara, California-based venture research firm that compiled the data for Entrepreneur’s Top 100 Listing, says the cross-curriculum movement promises to institutionalize entrepreneurial thinking in higher education outside of the business school, making it part of far more students’ educations.

Newton, who is also a professor of entrepreneurial finance at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, adds, “A high-quality liberal arts education is now viewed as a perfect complement to an entrepreneurship education and perspective, and vice versa.”

Entrepreneur’s 2^nd annual evaluation of the best entrepreneurship programs at U.S. colleges and universities is the most credible and comprehensive analysis of its kind, according to the magazine's editors. 

The study was conducted from September to December 2003 by TechKnowledge Point Corp.   Founded by Newton in 2001, TechKnowledge Point is the world’s first and only 24/7 online research and referral exchange for entrepreneurship and enterprise development.

The final rankings are based on more than 70 separate criteria, including course offerings, teaching and research faculty, business-community outreaches, research centers and institutes, degrees and certificates offered, and faculty and alumni evaluations.  These results appear in Entrepreneur’s May issue, available on newsstands April 20^th. 

For more than 25 years, Entrepreneur magazine has been the leading authority dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs worldwide to start and grow successful companies.  More than 2 million readers turn to Entrepreneur every month (MRI Fall 2003) for cutting-edge ideas to help them grow and improve their businesses.

Click here for more about what makes Fresno State unique.

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EDITORS and NEWS/PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS: Press releases can be downloaded at www.fresnostatenews.com. University Relations also provides releases for news media companies
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