Higher education increasingly utilizes active modes of teaching and learning in connection with entrepreneurship education. In this paper we consider part-time entrepreneurship of students. Our questions are: What are the backgrounds of part-time student entrepreneurs? What explains their intentions for full-time entrepreneurship, compared to non-entrepreneur students? Are the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions the same for part-time entrepreneurs as they are to non-entrepreneur students?

We utilize two sets of Finnish data, the first drawn from a survey of an online panel, consisting of 79 responses from part-time entrepreneurs who indicate studying as their primary occupation, and the second from a survey of third year HEI students in 2020, consisting of the responses from 122 students who were neither working as an entrepreneur nor currently in the process of starting a business. The two groups are compared in relation to full-time entrepreneurial intentions and antecedents of intentions based on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). In addition, we test how well the antecedents explain the variance in entrepreneurial intentions in these two groups with linear regression analysis.

The results suggest that starting a business is a powerful means of learning about entrepreneurship. It is particularly interesting that the effect of gender, present in the non-entrepreneur population, disappears in the student entrepreneur group. Female students in higher education in particular need experiences to overcome mental barriers to entrepreneurship.

We are not aware of any earlier work on full-time entrepreneurial intentions of part-time entrepreneurs who are also students, although graduates have been studied (Ruiz-Rosa et al., 2021). Hägg and Kurczewska (2020) suggest that EE in higher education of young adults should include guidance tailored by taking into consideration each students proficiency and knowledge in entrepreneurship. We also highlight the possibility of peer-to-peer learning, leveraging the experience of student entrepreneurs as vicarious learning.

The paper was presented at 3E Conference – ECSB Entrepreneurship Education Conference on 11-13 May 2022 in Dijon, France.