NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax; 713/743-8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2004

Contact: Angie Joe
713/743-8153 (office)
713/617-7138 (pager)
ajoe@uh.edu

ENTREPRENEUR MAGAZINE RANKS UH BUSINESS PROGRAM IN TOP TIER
Bauer’s Center for Entrepreneurship Scores High Marks in Texas by Alumni

HOUSTON, April 28, 2004 – Entrepreneur Magazine has named the University of Houston one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities. More than 825 entrepreneurship programs were researched for the study, which appears in the publication’s May 2004 issue.

UH’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) appears in the first tier of top 50 regionally recognized academic programs in the country, and the program is ranked regionally in a survey of alumni.

CEI is a resource base for entrepreneurs and offers a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship through the Bauer College of Business. The program includes out-of-class functions including mentoring and roundtables in addition to a rigorous curriculum. The center was founded to be a catalyst for establishing an educational shift that would closer align academic output to the needs of the business community.

For more than 10 years, CEI has provided students an opportunity to study entrepreneurship. The program has graduated more than 300 students. Thirty-eight percent of graduates have started entrepreneurial ventures during the program or shortly after graduation, and an additional 40 percent have joined an entrepreneurial firm. In the past three years, undergraduate students from the Bauer Entrepreneurship program have won awards in six national or international business plan competitions and nearly $50,000 in prizes. In many of these competitions, Bauer undergraduates competed against MBA teams from other universities.

Entrepreneur Magazine’s second annual evaluation of the best entrepreneurship programs at U.S. colleges and universities is considered by some the most credible and comprehensive analysis of its kind. The study was conducted from September to December 2003 by TechKnowledge Point Corp. Founded by Westmont College professor of entrepreneurial finance David Newton in 2001, TechKnowledge Point is the world’s first and only 24/7 online research and referral exchange for entrepreneurship and enterprise development.

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.

For more information about CEI go to: http://www.bauer.uh.edu/cei/.

To view a complete list of rankings by Entrepreneur Magazine, go to: http://www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges/.

About Entrepreneur magazine

For more than 25 years, Entrepreneur magazine has been the leading authority dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs worldwide to start and grow successful companies. More than 2 million readers turn to Entrepreneur every month (MRI Fall 2003) for cutting-edge ideas to help them grow and improve their businesses.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.