Hi All

I am trying to shortlist the best full time entrepreneurship programmes in Europe. So far I have shortlisted:

UCL MSc Tech Entrepreneurship -
This seems like the best full time programme in Europe right now with some of the alumni going on to start successful companies such as Vungle which has secured $25m in funding.

MSc Entrepreneurship at EMLyon - this seems good for people from family businesses but programme is too small for my liking (25-30 intake)

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

[Edited by 2015applicant on Feb 16, 2015]

I don't agree that that UCL program is the best in Europe, not by a long shot. There are a ton of others that have better reputations:

EDHEC's MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
Warwick's Innovation and Entrepreneurship
RSM's Strategic Entrepreneurship
Manchester's MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

But if you're looking for something in London, Imperial's MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management, given the school's triple accreditation, its reputation, and the program's post-graduate career outcomes, would be a great choice.

As an employer, I sponsored someone who worked for me to do the UCL course. It was a good course academically, but It doesn't have the sort of connections and context that Badux's suggestions have. EDHEC has an amazing set of resources for entrepreneurs, and Manchester has, alongside the MSc, an impressive set of Masters in Enterprise degrees and a successful enterprise centre.

Duncan - that is interesting. To me UCL seemed like the only good entrepreneurship programme in the UK. I personally don't see any value in going to Manchester - economy is way too small compared to London. I did look at the Imperial programme but it is a general MSc Management with some entrepreneurship programmes. The UCL programme is built from the ground up and UCL Advances appears to have decent connections to the tech startup cluster.

I want to stay in the UK so I do not see any value in doing a programme in France or continental europe in general. I do not speak any other European language.

Manchester is what, 100 minutes from London? Unlike the USA (for example) there really is a national market in Britain; London and Manchester are in the same economy.

Well, good luck.

I don't think that calling the Imperial program a general Msc with some entrepreneurship tossed in is a fair representation: the first term contains some basic business classes, that's true, but the spring and summer terms are pretty much completely focused on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Badux - managing a startup is very different from managing a large corporation. I don't see how studying subjects borrowed from MSc Management will be beneficial in managing a start-up. It just shows Imperial is being lazy.

Duncan - it is not feasible to catch a train from Manchester to London everyday. I need to network aggresively and the only way to do that is by being in central London.

It's closer than Lyon, which was also on your list. I really think you get better connections through a business school, even if it is not an entrepreneurship programme. Look at ESCP, Cass and LBS?

Duncan, can you explain what these connections are? The UCL programme is closely connected to silicon roundabout and Level 39 in Canary Wharf. I am interested in starting a tech venture, and not a traditional business (which LBS would be better at). I don't see any benefit whatsoever in learning how to manage a large corporation (which is what an MBA is designed for). I can understand why you would recommend LBS (for the network) but I don't see how any other programme in the UK would be better at tech entrepreneurship than the UCL TE programme.

That is a question with a very long answer, which would take more time that I have to give away. The quality of a programme isn't only driven by the content, or by the connections of the programme. It subsists also in the quality of the students and the connections that the wider school and university has, both in terms of alumni and the university's corporate connections. The schools I suggest have a much higher quality of students, and the scale of these schools means that there will be more entrepreneurs there than in the UCL programme, even if they are more generic degree titles. LBS is good for businesses of all types, and I think that means it could be better place for a tech start-up: LBS has a well-resources incubator, a VC fund, an venture capital network, and one of the world's top entrepreneurship faculties (I think Business Week ranked LBS sixth world wide for entrepreneurship). Cass is, of course, right there at Old Street and is part of City University which has its own incubator there. The quality of students at ESCP may be even higher. So, I think all these programmes have serious assets. For me, the quality of students is crucial because we will benefit from setting up a business with other talented people.

Thanks for elaborating. I know for a fact UCL attracts quality students as past students have attracted major VC funding. Average quality will not be lower than ESCP/Cass. Just looked at Linkedin.

I am sure LBS does even better, it is LBS after all. However paying 60K to start a business does not appeal to me. For getting into strategy consulting, I am sure it's well worth it.

I am already an alumnus of a top 2 UK university, so I can always leverage the network there.

Good luck. Caveat emptor.