Frequently Asked Questions about the Entrepreneurial Business Planning course
Q: Is this a "free elective" or BUGE course?
Yes, for students who are enrolled in a program that does not belong to the Division of Business. For students in a Division of Business degree, this is a business elective.
Q: What is the fee for this course?
This is a standard 4.5 unit course, as far as fees are concerned.
Q: On which campuses is the course being taught?
City West.
Q: Do I have to enrol on a particular campus?
You can enrol at whichever campus this course is offered.
Q: What are the prerequisites?
The only prerequisite is Entrepreneurial Enterprises. For that course, the prerequisite is that you have completed 36 units of a degree. This means that first-year students are not eligible for this course.
Q: What if I am attending another university?
If you are enrolled in another university and you have space in your degree for an elective course (and you have completed Entrepreneurial Enterprises or an equivalent course), then you can apply through your own department to take this course as a cross-institutional transfer student. We have a number of people doing this already. You will also need to get the form signed by one of our administrative staff - visit the School of Management office, which is on the ground level of the Elton Mayo Building at the corner of George Street and North Terrace, City West Campus.
Q: What if I don't have room in my degree, or have already completed my degree?
If you do not have room in your degree for an elective, you can apply to attend this course as an audit student, but there is a fee attached. UniSA Campus Central (8302 0511) can provide information about this option and the fees. The HECS fee for this course is at 'Band 2'. You must still meet the pre-requisite for this course.
Q: Is this course offered externally?
We regret that this course is available only face-to-face. It is not offered externally or online. However, some regional and interstate students take this intensive course by coming to Adelaide for the week of the lecture/seminar sessions. They also need to be very well-organised, and make sure that they communicate frequently with their project team..
Q: How large are the classes?
15 students took this course when it was last offered in 2006.
Q: How can the course content be covered in five days?
The five days are taken up with lecture/seminar sessions, and these are followed by the equivalent of more than two full days of workshop sessions where you can get support from the lecturer or tutor for preparing your team business plan. In this way, you have the equivalent of five full days to cover and explore the course content, and this is the same as the contact hours for a full semester of lecturers and tutorials.
Q: Why don't the workshops appear on the official timetable?
The university system is not really geared to present a simple view of the timetable for an intensive course. Including the optional workshops would make the timetable section of the official home page confusing, and would cause timetable conflicts that prevent students from enrolling. That is why we include the note "IMPORTANT: See timetable details at www.unisa.edu.au/cde/" on the timetable page.
Q: How much work does this course involve?
The 'rule of thumb' for business courses is that you spend 2 hours of your own time on assignments, group work, tutorial preparation and self-directed learning for every contact hour. This course is about 40 contact hours (including seminars and workshop sessions). This means that we expect that you will spend about 120 hours of your own time in attending lecture/seminar sessions and workshops, as well as preparing for the exam, working with your team to develop your business idea, and writing your team report.
CDE staff have taught this course a number of times, and we have observed that students who are well organised seem to have few problems. Students generally arrange to meet in their teams on a regular basis to plan and coordinate their activities and allocate tasks. They then spend time on their own doing their allocated tasks and own study.
Q. Are course materials provided?
You receive a printed study guide of about 200 pages, that includes the course outline, copies of lecture presentations and a template for each class exercise. A set of readings will also be available. You will also have access to the course web site that includes supplementary readings and templates for preparing the feasibility plan.
Q: Will I need to get a reference book?
We strongly recommend that you have a copy of the suggested reference book to supplement the course materials in the printed study guide and the materials on the course web site - but this is not mandatory.
Q: Aren’t entrepreneurs born? How can you teach someone to be entrepreneurial?
If you have an entrepreneurial inclination, this course will give you the knowledge and confidence to identify and evaluate a business opportunity, and how to go through the process to develop this opportunity as a business venture. It will help you to be entrepreneurial when the situation arises. It will also give you the knowledge and confidence to join a team (led by an entrepreneur) to set up a new business venture – either as a new business or within an existing organisation.
UniSA's aim is to offer this type of course to students across the whole university as part of a strategy to become an 'enterprise university'. The purpose is to encourage all students to consider starting their own business after they graduate. That is, the course will open up another career option - for our graduates to become the employers of the future. However, we recognise that not all students will want to start their own business. The purpose of the course is also to give those students an introduction to the entrepreneurial process and a better understanding of what it is like to work in a small business, so that these people will feel more comfortable working in a small or entrepreneurial business after graduation.
Q: How is this course assessed?
There are three components: an individual assignment, an individual report, and an entrepreneurial business plan (prepared by a team of 3 or 4 students).
Q: What is the individual assignment?
In the first session of the seminar series, you will be given four questions addressing the course content of the first couple of days. At the end of the seminar series, you will be given 30 minutes to answer one of those questions, and this will be done under exam conditions. The lecturer/seminar series includes a session on "answering examination questions" that will help students to understand the expectations regarding this assessment. This is worth 15% of the total marks.
Q: What is the individual report?
This is worth 35% of the total marks. You will be given the challenge of interviewing an entrepreneur about their new venture start-up. You will then write a report, using a template provided. Students find this a very stimulating and motivating exercise.
Q: What is the team assessment?
The class will be given two or three business ideas, and your team will be able to select one of these as the subject for your project work and your project report. (Alternatively, your team may identify and choose your own genuinely innovative and new idea.) These ideas have been selected on the basis of their potential for development in the form of a business plan There are many advantages that arise from this approach. In particular, each will be discussed during the week of seminars and exercises. This means that your team will be able to develop a very good feel for these projects during the lecture sessions, and this will make the project more interesting, and easier to deal with (than if you chose your own topic).
You will be given access to details about these business ideas before the start of the lecture/seminar series.
You will cover key aspects of the entrepreneurial business planning task in your team exercises during the intensive sessions. You will be expected to meet as a team to produce the business plan. You must use the Word document and the Excel spreadsheet templates (that are provided on the course web site) to develop your team report. The full specification is given on the course website. This will be worth 50% of the marks from the entire course. The report is assessed as a whole - that is, a grade is given for the report, so that each team member receives the same grade for this assessment (although it is possible to award different grades if necessary).
Q: How are we allocated into teams?
The lecturer will allocate the class into teams of 3 or 4 students before the start of the intensive seminar sessions. People will be chosen for teams so as to maximize the diversity of the team, based on the enrolment information we have. You will be asked to sit with your team members, as you will carry out a number of team exercises during the three days of intensive sessions.
Q: Can we form our own teams?
Team allocation reflects the workplace, where people are put together to carry out specific projects. Our experience has been that teams that are self selected do not get on as well as teams that are allocated (and this is why we go to the trouble of allocating teams). If two or three members of a project team are friends or work together, then this can put the other team member(s) in a difficult situation, or at a disadvantage, if the relationship is not well managed. In addition, if something goes wrong in the project team, the problem may be carried over into the workplace if members of the team work together.
Our view is that University offers a great opportunity to meet people from other study programs and from other countries, and the people you work with in a project team may be valuable members of your (International) network in the future.
Q: Where is the course home page?
See www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/courses/course.asp?Course=BUSS3049