The magazine has evaluated more than 800 entrepreneurship programs each year since 2003. Using criteria gathered by TechKnowledge Point Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif., the magazine classifies the entrepreneurship programs into two categories -- 50 programs at nationally prominent colleges and universities and 50 programs at colleges and universities that are recognized in their regions.
UNT's program, which offers a professional field in entrepreneurship as part of a bachelor of business administration degree, ranked in the first tier of programs at regional universities and was one of three programs at Texas universities to be recognized in the top 50 regional list. UNT's program was also named to the top tier of the regional list in 2004.
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. The rankings appear in the April 2005 issue of Entrepreneurship and are also available at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.
Although administered by the Department of Management, UNT's entrepreneurship program receives support from the Murphy Enterprise Center, which was established in 1999 with a $1 million donation from UNT alumni Ken and Shirley Murphy, founders of The Mail Box Inc., in Dallas. Positioning itself in the North Texas region as a high quality education program, the center offers scholarships, internships and high-quality educational and experimental activities with the goal of encouraging outstanding UNT students, as well as those still in high school, to pursue careers in entrepreneurship.
In the fall 2004 semester, 147 UNT undergraduates declared entrepreneurship as their professional field for their bachelor's degrees, a 77 percent increase in the number of entrepreneurship students in fall semester 2003. Eileen Curry Resnik, director of the Murphy Enterprise Center, said many of these students have already launched their own businesses.
"The ranking just gives our students one more advantage in the business environment," she said. "We believe that entrepreneurship and education are our country's hope for the future and we are delighted to be recognized as having one of the most outstanding programs in the country that works to that end. "