Since the beginning of this year, it became known that the project “Female Entrepreneurship – Empowering Female Students to Pursue an Entrepreneurial Career (FEEN)” was selected for the implementation by Austrian Agency for Development within the framework of Austrian Partnership Program in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR).
The project is coordinated by the professor Sabine Bergner from University of Graz (Austria).
Prof. Bergner holds a PhD in Psychology and a venia docendi in Business Administration. She is an Associate Professor at the University Graz and fulfills a bridging position between the Department of Psychology and the Department of Leadership & Entrepreneurship. She has ample research, teaching and training experience in the field of entrepreneurship and leadership – inside as well as outside academia. She is a highly active scholar with rich international experience for instance as a researcher and project leader in Great Britain, Slovenia, Malaysia or Germany.
Partner of the project is Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU). From TSU side in the project are participating two academic personnel from TSU Faculty of Economics and Business: associate professor Eka Lekashvili (coordinator) and associate professor Ia Natsvlishvili (partner). Duration of the project is 8 months and the project goal is to develop of research and educational project proposal, that will be submitted for academic partnership projects call by (APPEAR).
The overall aim of this Austrian-Georgian Academic Partnership is to empower young women to become entrepreneurs and profit from the benefits tied to entrepreneurship. The main topic of the project is female entrepreneurship. Based on the benefits tied to and the gender gap reported in entrepreneurship, the partnership’s goal is two folded. The first goal is to reveal in-depth knowledge on the gender gap in entrepreneurship by conducting quantitative research. The second goal is to reduce the gender gap by providing training/teaching activities specifically designed for female students and young female academics in Georgia. Therefore, the partnership’s activities, outputs and short-term results are oriented towards training/teaching AND research. Research activities will contribute to the first goal while teaching/training activities will address the second one.
The project also aims to promote an initiative that gives female students the opportunity to take up entrepreneurial positions. Furthermore the project makes contribution to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Quality Education; Gender Equality; Decent Work & Economic Growth; To certain extent the project contributes to SDGs like Industry Innovation & Infrastructure; Reduce Inequality.
In addition, the main goal of the project is development of cooperation between TSU and the University of Graz. It will be achieved by conducting research within the framework of the mentioned project, sharing teaching methods, publishing the research results in recognized peer-reviewed journals, and participating in the development of a larger project by both parties. For this purpose from April 23 to May 7 of this year, the business trip of associate professors Eka Lekashvili and Ia Natsvlishvili of the Faculty of Economics and Business to the city of Graz took place. Professor Sabine Bergner visited Georgia with the same purpose.
The main goal of the preparatory project has been achieved - within the framework of the academic partnership program a new project application has been prepared on women's entrepreneurship. In order to better understand the reality of Georgia, a survey of female entrepreneurs was conducted in the context of self-assessment of entrepreneurial abilities. The results of the survey were used to plan the goals and activities of the new project.
As for the University of Graz, it was founded in 1585. Currently, 40,000 students study at 6 faculties of the university. It is worth noting that the Nobel Prize laureates were educated in the classrooms of the university. Among them, prominent Austro-American economist, Harvard University professor - Joseph Schumpeter.
The process of internationalization of teaching and research at TSU is developing, and if earlier Western European advanced universities were less interested in the possibilities of TSU, today the situation is different: Universities form consortia, alliances and enter the international educational market with a single goal. The convergence of interests with the University of Graz proves that TSU is interesting for advanced foreign universities.