Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal Volume 27, Issue 2, 2021 1 1528-2686-27-2-478 UNIVERSITIES AS A PIPELINE OF ENTREPRENEURS IN AN EMERGING ECONOMY A MODEL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION Marlin Hoffman, University of the Western Cape Ricardo Peters, University of the Western Cape ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have been identified as alleviators of unemployment, poverty and slow economic growth. The National Development Plan 2030 (2012) indicated that 11 million jobs are needed by the year 2030 and to realise this country need to produce entrepreneurs. It has been established, in research, that entrepreneurship education has an encouraging effect on entrepreneurship. This study looked at universities, within the Western Cape, South Africa, as a possible a pipeline of entrepreneurs that would enter the economy after completing their entrepreneurship studies. The study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour to determine the predictors of entrepreneurial intention of the students. The factors that influences entrepreneurial intention, used in this study, was attitude towards entrepreneurship, role models, entrepreneurial leaders and resources and opportunities at universities.240 students were interviewed and a questionnaire was developed and tested for the purpose of this study. The model yielded a variance of 57.6%, explaining the entrepreneurial intention of students. Understanding the influencers of entrepreneurial intention will assist in the development of entrepreneurship programs at universities and what is required to increase entrepreneurial intention which ultimately leads to entrepreneurial behaviour. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Student Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship Education, Universities, Intention. INTRODUCTION South Africa, like so many countries across the world, has looked to entrepreneurship as a vehicle to alleviate poverty and ensure economic growth, which is evident in its National Development Plan 2030 (NPD, 2013). The NDP 2030 (2012) indicated that the creation of 11 million jobs is required by the year 2030 to ensure the country’s economic sustainability and entrepreneurship was identified as the mechanism with which to obtain this targeted number of jobs. South Africa is presently encountering a crisis with a current unemployment rate of 30.8% StatsSA, 2020 which has increased from 20% in 1994 (StatsSA, 1998). Fal et al. (2010) argued that entrepreneurship is the solution to eradicating slow economic growth and unemployment. Entrepreneurial intention is considered the main driver of entrepreneurial behaviour therefore, the higher degree of intention the greater possibility of the behaviour being performed (among others, Bird, 1988; Azjen, 1991; Van Gelderen et al., 2008). For this reason, the researcher has adapted Azjen’s Theory of Planned Behavior model and incorporated four factors which would influence entrepreneurial intention of university students. Entrepreneurship education, at universities, is imperative to the development of entrepreneurs in order to start businesses which will create jobs, alleviate poverty, and stimulate economic growth. The study