London is not so familiar with solid Entrepreneurship courses from standard business schools. One of the most legit courses on Business Entrepreneurship would be the summer school offered by London School of Economics and Political science.

Recently the US based school situated in California has made plans to start teaching the ‘Stanford Ignite’ Entrepreneurship course here in September.

Stanford University, business oriented school is located at the heart of the fabulous Silicon Valley just 35 miles (56.32 kilometers) south of San Francisco and 20 miles (32.18 kilometres) north of San Jose. The Stanford faculty and Alumni (Association) prides itself in being the beginning of  top notch state of the art companies like Google,Yahoo,HP (Hewlett Packard). Most of them are still managed by Stanford and call it their home.

It’s going to position itself in the Canary Wharf area of London’s docklands. The “Stanford Ignite” is offered on campus and it teaches young minds, who are potential future innovators to grasp,materialize and commercialize their ideas and innovations.

According to their homepage, “In this program, you will be exposed to both the fundamentals of business, and the practical aspects of identifying and evaluating business ideas and moving them forward.” The classes in London are a part of a grand scale plan to teach in different countries. New York, Beijing, Sao Paolo, Santiago and Bangalore are already a part of their list.

Unlike other universities who just have initiated online courses or set up a branch in another country, Stanford’s faculty is welcoming this like a tour where they have to travel and teach in different countries.

Considering the fact that it has acquired the rank of being one of the top 5 most reputable institutions of the world,this is quite a drastic and sudden move.Instead of relying on the advantageous location of Silicon Valley and brilliant campus filled with history, it’s going to move the classes to a borrowed commercial space in London’s Canary Wharf.

The assistant dean in charge of the grand plan, Bethany Coates stated “We’re a university. We shouldn’t be in the real estate business, the catering business, the janitorial business.” and that Stanford can keep up with its name and reputation without its campus and location, even in a rented area. She also stated that this way Stanford could go to its willing audience in different countries instead of making them come all the way here in California. The courses will be held by the original Stanford faculty with the advantages of video-link ups and online study material.

The students won’t get a full degree but a certificate of attending the 3 months course instead.

Even if it’s Stanford, it still remains doubtful if employers will favor this instead of a proper degree. But this is going to pave the way for more universities to teach courses overseas. Even in this age, universities struggle to globalize but Stanford’s new project counts for a more affordable and accurate approach. Reputed universities are usually bound to their origins and location and it’s hard to branch out. When people think of Oxford, they’re taking its location in Oxford, United Kingdom into account by default. Same goes for the US based Harvard and MIT, hence experts have been declaring the whole project to be a risky endeavor and the ultimate value of a 3 month certificate is still unclear.

The “Stanford Ignite” program takes approximately 100 hours’ worth of classroom time and 100-150 hours’ worth of projects. Every accepted applicant is required to attend all the sessions. Enthusiasts and interested students will be taught in a simulated business environment where they’ll work with other students as a team and make hard decisions.

This will provide them with a deep understanding of what it means to be entrepreneur. Ms. Coates firmly believes that entrepreneurship can be taught and perfected and she expects over 70 percent of the accepted students to already have a master’s degree or a PhD.

The cost of the 3 month course stands at around $10,000 (approximately 6,744 pounds) which is comparably cheaper to an average cost 100,000 dollars annually for a full MBA course and campus life in one of the top US business schools.

Apply for Stanford here.

Apply for Stanford Ignite London.