I’ve been ‘coaching’ people in business design, growth strategies, and pitching for almost 15 years. So, when earlier this year, I signed up for the ILM Level 7 Certificate in Executive Coaching to accredit this work, I thought I would breeze through the qualification. How wrong I was!

Talking to other enterprise educators, I think it’s common for many of us to be asked to ‘coach’ students with little to no formal training as to what this really means in practice. Some of us manage to glean useful lessons from books, videos, or conferences, cobbling together insights and putting these into practice. Some of us just wing-it and hope. Very few of us get a meaningful introduction to coaching, it’s applications and intricacies, and this can have implications both for ourselves, and for those that we work with.

Joining the course has opened my eyes to the real depth of the coaching process and introduced me to a variety of coaching styles I didn’t even know existed. Most importantly, it’s helped me understand myself better as a coach. In this blog, I am going to share some things that I’ve learned and some practical tips to improve any coaching practices you might be engaging in.

Discovering the Real Process of Coaching

One of the first things that hit me was how structured and methodical coaching needs to be. Before this course, I had a loose, one-size-fits-all approach to coaching. I have since learned that there are many different methods out there, from the GROW model to more reflective and transformative techniques such as CBC. Each approach has its own strengths and is suited to different situations and client needs, and they need to be applied in certain fashion to maximise their impact. For example, while the GROW model is great for setting goals and planning actions, reflective approaches such as CBC are perfect for fostering deep self-awareness and changing beliefs. That said, I’ve also learned that some techniques work better for me than others and that I need to be authentic in my coaching practice.

Client-Focused vs. Learner-Focused

One of the most striking differences I discovered between coaching and teaching is the client-focused nature of coaching. When teaching, I lead the learning process, delivering content and guiding students through a structured curriculum. Even if the model is flipped and onus is on the student to uncover a solution, it’s still my plan we are following. Coaching, on the other hand, is all about the client. Here, my role is to facilitate the client’s self-discovery and development, helping them find their own solutions and paths forward. This means listening more than talking, asking powerful questions, and creating a safe space for clients to explore their thoughts and feelings.

This understanding of positionality has made me reflect on my role in both contexts. As a teacher, I think I might finally understand how to be more of a ‘Meddler in the Middle,’ while as a coach, I can clearly see how my old practice was too driven by the plan I had for the people I worked with.

Self-Awareness as a Coach

A huge part of the course has been understanding myself as a coach. I realise now how crucial self-awareness is in coaching. It helps you recognise your own biases, strengths, and areas where you can improve. Through reflective exercises and supervision sessions, I have gained many insights into my coaching style and its impact on my clients. Key to this has been the supervision process, working with a more experienced coach to reflect on my practice, address my concerns, and unpack my own worries, stresses, and biases before they overwhelm me or my clients. Frankly, it scares me how long I’ve coached without engaging in supervision.

Some Practical Coaching Practices

1. Contracting: As I mentioned, start with a clear contract. This sets expectations and establishes professional boundaries, which are essential for a successful coaching relationship. Contracting is something you need to do at the start of any coaching relationship and then review during every session to check you are still addressing the client’s needs, rather than your own agenda.
2. Boundaries Between Coaching, Teaching, and Mentoring: It’s important to know the difference between coaching and mentoring. Mentoring is about sharing experiences and giving guidance, teaching is focused on leading a learning process, while coaching hinges on helping the client find their own solutions. Keeping these boundaries clear ensures the coaching process stays client-centred and empowering. A simple question I now reflect on after every session is, ‘How many answers did I give the client?’ If I gave more answers than I asked questions, then I know I have the balance wrong.
3. Importance of Supervision: Supervision is crucial for coaches to reflect on their practice, gain new perspectives, and tackle any challenges. Regular supervision sessions have been a game-changer for me, providing a safe space to discuss tough cases and get constructive feedback. So, find an experienced coach to supervise your practice, and ensure they know how to supervise.

 

A Final Thought

Going back to ‘coaching school’ has had a massive impact on my coaching practice. It’s shown me just how much there is to learn and provided me with valuable insights and practical strategies. By focusing on a structured coaching process, exploring different approaches, and fostering self-awareness, I think we can all significantly improve our coaching effectiveness and better support the growth of those that we serve.

Warwick: Leadership for Educational Transformation

A unique programme Leadership for Educational Transformation (LET) aimed at supporting the rebuilding of the education system in Ukraine founded by an EEUK Fellow, Dr Bo Kelestyn. With 50+ educational leaders from Ukraine taking part, the programme generated several impact stories and a series of WonkHE  articles co-created by the LET participants and staff leading the programme. One of the articles explored the links between education and innovation, emphasising the value of the UK enterprise education experience for Ukraine, spotlighting the EEUK Fellowship and community, and the ETC toolkit. Learn how you can stand with Ukraine as an enterprise educator. 

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Brookes Enterprise Support

With a new team of student/graduate support advisors appointed at Oxford Brookes in September, Brookes Enterprise Support is back! With a dedicated team of in-house, start-up business advisors, their drive to enhance the student experience has been inspiring. Designing and delivering a wide range of programmes to support ideation, freelancing, and wider enterprise skills and attributes, in addition to 1:1 business start-up support, this renewed service has achieved a huge amount in just a few months. They will be attending their first IEEC in September and are keen to connect with the EntEd community; do say hello.

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Derby: Student Art Enterprise Challenge

The University of Derby recently ran a competition open to their School of Arts students to win £500 towards creating a piece of work. This new challenge is designed to inspire creative students from a wide variety of courses to consider their future as potential freelancers, small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. It also gave them the chance to learn new skills around enterprise and thinking about costs and profits. The completed works will be showcased at the University’s creative industries incubator, Banks Mill Studios at their prestigious Open Studios event on 22-24 November later this year.

Meet the winners

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Open Business Creators Fund for Disabled Entrepreneurs

The Open University (OU) has awarded a total of £60,000 to 18 aspiring entrepreneurs to support the next generation of student entrepreneurs through its 2024 Open Business Creators Fund competition. The OU are also partnering with Scope to launch the Open Business Creators Fund for Disabled Entrepreneurs in September to encourage early stage founders to share their ideas and access support and funding. With a total prize fund of £25k provided by the Open University, this funding competition will support any disabled person in the UK who is at the idea or very early stage of starting up a business.

Contact Rob Wilson to learn more.

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Cumbria: The University of Cumbria launches Student Enterprise Survey 

As part of an ongoing commitment to invest in enterprise and entrepreneurial activity at the University of Cumbria, the Student Enterprise Team has launched an online survey to find out what students and alumni would like to have available at the university. With questions covering delivery method, extracurricular activities, workshop content, and additional qualifications, findings from the survey will help shape the future of enterprise and innovation services and contribute to the development of a UoC Enterprise Strategy. Any enterprise educators who would like a copy of the survey questions are welcome to contact Laura at laura.kirk@cumbria.ac.uk

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UCL: Celebrating UCL’s inspiring startup community

UCL startups received funding and recognition for their achievements at this year’s entrepreneurial summer showcase. Read more here.

Manchester: 2024 Eli & Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award
The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre announced the winners of the 2024 Eli & Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award earlier this July. This award supported students, researchers, and recent graduates in launching businesses involving graphene or other 2D materials, focusing on innovation and commercial impact.The top prize of £50,000 was awarded to Kun Huang of Solar Ethos. The second prize of £20,000 went to Hafiza Hifza Nawaz of Fabstics. All finalists received support, including pitching workshops and IP advice. Speeches were given by Lynn Sheppard, Prof. James Baker, Dr. Vivek Koncherry, Liam Johnson, Prof. Luke Georghiou, and Dr. Eli Harari. Link to full article.

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Derby:Seven University of Derby students win a rent-free creative studio for a year.
The Banks Mill Student Residency Award is a fantastic opportunity for current students and recent graduates to develop new work and business skills in a creative and collaborative environment.  The successful applicants not only win access to a year’s rent-free studio space worth more than £3,000, but they also have an opportunity to exhibit and promote their work through Banks Mill, including taking part in the prestigious Open Studios event later in November.  The judges saw that there would be an excellent opportunity for support and collaboration between many of the applicants and are pleased to announce the winners here

 

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Loughborough University’s Kate Allan honoured with Women in Innovation Purple Plaque
Symbolising Kate’s remarkable journey and groundbreaking achievements.  ExpHand Prosthetics, founded in 2017 during her final year while studying Product Design Engineering. She met Zoey, a little girl with congenital limb-loss, Kate realised her potential to change lives.  Through 3D-printing, Kate designed a prosthetic,  providing affordable, life-changing upper limb prosthetics. The ExpHand is now being used by children across the UK and internationally with an upcoming product trial in Kenya. Kate joins a network of over 200 innovate women winners developing inspiring solutions to pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges.

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ARU first in UK to receive prestigious NCEE award

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) has become the first UK institution to receive the prestigiousEntrepreneurial University Award from the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE). This award, launched in 2024, honours universities that make a significant impact on their communities through innovative and transformational practices. ARU impressed the independent review panel with its leadership structure supporting enterprise and student entrepreneurship, strategic priorities, and diverse support programmes. Highlights include ARU’s Entrepreneurs’ Community, Alumni Network, ARISE Innovation Hubs, and integration of enterprise into the curriculum, all supported by strong industry engagement and community involvement.

Post Election, EEUK is looks forward to hearing the details behind the manifesto promises.

With many looking for a new model for HE, picking up on issues across the sector as well as ones that impact our work directly, such as visa issues.

EEUK is seeking a vision and long-term commitment which might with the call from  The Entrepreneurs Network and YBI (Youth Business International (June 2023) for enterprise education in schools (Empowering the Future) based on their previous work as to “what applied learning really looks like” (Jan 2023). This calls for under-18s to be able open business bank accounts without credit facilities to help them separate personal and business finances from a young age, as well as calling for transversal skills to be the key (which EntreComp is) seeking that essential skills that necessary to be entrepreneurial are embedded across the curriculum from primary school/

Ensuring the education system is “fit for an entrepreneur” is a message also being heralded across Wales, with the launch of their new resources for schools which draws upon competency-based questioning as progression points and shares links to additional resources

Wales has also announced that CTER will Medr (when established in August to replace Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.) which is Welsh for “skill” or ability.

This connects with the launch of the launch of the 2018 QAA UK Quality Code which outlines 12 sector-agreed Principles for academic standards, as this has been uniquely designed to apply to all post-secondary providers (to align with changes in Wales and Scotland – as @WONKHE suggest possibly, anticipating a future need in England.

At the other end of our educational pipeline, the HESA data is out, sharing the story of our graduates as freelancers and business starts with “graduates running own business, self-employed/freelancing or developing a portfolio by domicile – Academic years 2017/18 to 2021/22” as well over 21,000  (Figure 8). Have a read of “What do graduates do” which shows, that in government data for broadly the same period, which shows that English graduates were earning £11,500 more a year than non-graduates.  This links to last month’s blog discussions and a King’s College report,  which emphasised the benefit of having a degree, by highlighting the high esteem in which a UK education is held. This month, LEO datas shows from the latest (2021/22) data on graduate earnings and employment that for first degree graduates, median earnings five years after graduation reached £29,900.

All of which helps us understand our students and graduates better – it seems that we can be inspired as research (tomorrow’s entrepreneurs). with entrepreneurs under the age of 35 show that they are more than twice as likely to say their business’ primary aim is to solve a social or environmental problem than older entrepreneurs.

The future is bright – see you at IEEC Belfast 2024 to explore it all in detail!

Leeds Beckett: New partnership launched to boost sustainability of start-ups
Business experts at Leeds Beckett University have teamed up with marketing agency, GOLD79, in a new partnership to boost the long-term growth and sustainability of start-up businesses across the UK. A new programme – GOLD79 MINE – has been launched as a collaboration between Leeds Business School at Leeds Beckett and GOLD79. The programme will support talented and entrepreneurial individuals – including students and graduates of the university – who want to start their own businesses through academic consultancy, expert business support services, mentoring, networking, business infrastructure and financial support.
Read more about the new programme on the Leeds Beckett website.

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 UWTSD: Welsh SME’s Address SDG16
At Learned Society of Wales’ Early Research Career Colloquium 2024, Bangor University, HES (Dr Felicity Healey-Benson and Professor David A Kirby) launched a bilingual booklet featuring 10 Welsh SMEs addressing SDG 16 through Harmonious Entrepreneurship.

 

Key Features:

• Diverse Welsh SMEs exemplifying Harmonious Entrepreneurship
• Alignment with global SDG 16 and Wales’ Well-being Goals
• Inspiring stories of Welsh ventures promoting peace activism
• Creative business models tackling social and environmental challenges

The booklet is a resource for businesses, educators, students, and policymakers, showcasing ethical and sustainable practices. HES extends gratitude to its distinguished foreword contributors. Cymraeg       English

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MTU: HEI Green Champions
We are searching for HEI green champions in institutions that would like to test the indicators of the GET-AHED sustainability self-assessment tool sometime between mid-September and mid-October – online and totally flexibly with a total duration of around 20-40 minutes. Interested institutions are invited to reach out to get-ahed@wpz-research.com for further information. More information on the project can be found here and you can sign up for our newsletter here.

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ARU: Social Spark x Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy: Empowering Future Social Entrepreneurs
Since September 2023, Social Spark provided ARU students the opportunity to contribute to creating a healthier and more equitable future for people in Basildon. Partnering with Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust, this initiative tackled pressing health and care challenges faced by the local community. Students supported by the Anglia Ruskin Enterprise Academy have embraced the chance to create social enterprises focused on family nutrition, art-based wellbeing, and more. Through workshops, mentoring, and valuable connections, they have developed innovative ideas with real social impact. The initiative concluded with a big celebration in June 2024 by showcasing the students’ ingenious contributions.

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LJMU: Startup Team Celebrates 20 years of supporting entrepreneurs
LJMU’s  offer for student entrepreneurs began in 2004 with ambitious plans to create viable start up companies. This has always been the objective of the team, which sits outside the curriculum but the heart of the student experience at LJMU. Now operating as the Start-Up Hub, the team celebrated this important milestone by inviting 20 entrepreneurs to tell their stories. The resulting publication can be found here. Tom Strodtbeck, LJMU’s Entrepreneurship Consultant commented: “LJMU continues to produce an incredible array of entrepreneurs, working in the arts, sciences, professional services and more. And as most of our entrepreneurs set up businesses in the Liverpool City Region, we will see both their economic and social impact, as they grow into the next generation of civic leaders.”

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MMU: Associate Member Publishes Paper
This international systematic literature is relevant to EEUK members because it includes findings from around the world on the link between different types of mentoring in higher education and student career development including for example, entrepreneurial skills, intentions, engagement and business start-up survival. Nabi, G., Walmsley, A., Mir, M.  & Osman, S. (2024): The impact of mentoring in higher education on student career development: a systematic review and research agenda. Studies in Higher Education. Early release. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2354894

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Northumbria: Global Survey on Academic Work
EEUK Director, Vicky Mountford-Brown is working as part of a global research group led by Professor Inger Mewburn, Director of Researcher Development at The Australian National University and perhaps more famously known as ‘The Thesis Whisperer’  https://thesiswhisperer.com/ The group are exploring academic work and hoping to get a strong global representation in the responses.  Please consider completing this survey and passing on to others in your networks within and beyond ISBE: https://anu.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEeXg1L3RZJJWce

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 Nottingham: Double your Price
Professor David Falzani of Nottingham University Business School has had his book, Double Your Price, shortlisted as a finalist for the prestigious Business Book of the Year Award 2024. Grounded in 25 years’ experience of training, mentoring, starting and growing companies, the book addressees the emotional turmoil managers feel when faced with the all-important pricing decisions. With a foreword written by Lord Sainsbury, the book includes key tools and a range of 10 exercises for business managers, owners, students, and entrepreneurs looking to enhance their pricing strategies and foster a value-seeking culture. The winning book will be announced in September. 

 

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Exeter celebrates student entrepreneurs at annual awards
The University of Exeter celebrated another successful year of student startups and innovation at the Student Entrepreneurship Awards. The event celebrated student entrepreneurship activities delivered across the University, including the Student Startups programmes, the With Proficiency in Entrepreneurship degree pathway and the Engineering and Entrepreneurship degree programme. Six exceptional individuals were recognised for their achievements on the Student Startups programmes this year. Attendees also heard from student, Mattia Vancini, who won an award at last year’s event and gave a keynote speech sharing his journey exploring entrepreneurship. Read more.

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Durham: New National Social Enterprise Competition for Students & Graduates
Durham University has partnered with the Ford Family Foundation to launch Ignite, a new funding competition supporting social enterprises emerging from higher education. Ignite aims to shine a spotlight on our tremendous social entrepreneurs and will culminate in a pitching event at The Shard in October. The winner will receive a £20,000 grant, with a further £30,000 shared between four other contenders. In addition to funding, prizes also include 1:1 coaching from Cambio Consultancy and I.P. support from Mathys & Squire. Deadline for entries has been extended until 31^st July via the Ignite website

With a general election underway, we want to focus on policy, rather than politics but working at the intersection of major policy areas, many enterprise educators continue their call for long term direction and clarity, whilst the financial constraints/staff changes across the sector make planning uncertain.

However, against this turbulent backdrop, the latest UUK research  (using LEO data) shows conclusively it is “worth getting a degree” with evidence that becoming a graduate increases earning potential across a life time.  Whilst it is worth noting that this data also shows that the gender pay gap continues, it also serves as reminds that our current students are in a different position to those being tracked in the workforce, having studied through Covid and a cost of living and now a shrinking HE/ funding crisis.  As enterprise educators we might need to understand Why university students “see little point” in attendance (May 2024) as we begin planning our 2024/5 programme especially when the initial findings from the forthcoming (2025) Lilac Review (paywall) show discrimination against disabled entrepreneurs. We need to future proof our offers to support our current students. Such review is also usefully informed by looking internationally at UK graduate outcomes International Graduate Outcomes (May 2024). It calls for improved career support, and as enterprise educators we need to consider our roles in this. The report also calls for more collaboration with employers to ensure skills are embedded in the curriculum, something which our vibrant EntreComp community supports. With further recognition for the diversity within education, the power of alumni and the need to realise the benefits of visa routes. So, plenty to think about as we support our home and international students! And a quick focus on:

Academics: SEDA is seeking your inputs on your use of AI in learning and assessment

Practitioners in Careers: join us for FAST TRACK if enterprise education is new to you!

Influencers: We will be shaping a statement for the new Government, share your concerns

See you at IEEC Belfast 2024

As educators, we have an imperative to consistently evolve how we teach and assess students to ensure they are developing the future-focused skills required to thrive amid rapid technological change. Generative AI is arguably the most transformative technological shift of our era, and rather than being insulated from it, our learners need to be immersed in these tools and their implications.

That’s why for the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year, I’ll be completely revamping a major case study assignment for my masters module – leading and managing startups. Instead of providing students with a pre-written business case scenario to analyse, they will leverage generative AI like Claude or ChatGPT to design their own original 2500-word case studies from scratch.

The new assignment challenges students to first define the background of a fictitious startup company they envision, including the initial product/service, founding story, and early market traction. They then outline key parameters around two domains where the company would likely face significant scaling challenges as it rapidly grows, such as operations, human resources, leadership, marketing, IT, and more.

Using a generative AI model, students will iteratively refine prompts to have the AI construct a dynamic, contextually rich 2500-word narrative that explores how those escalating scaling challenges could realistically unfold for their hypothetical startup. What bottlenecks might it hit? What risks and constraints must be navigated? What potential solutions and best practices could be implemented?

By driving this entire case study creation process, students gain vital experience in AI prompt engineering – strategically scoping prompts and leveraging an AI’s language abilities to transform that prompt into a nuanced, multi-faceted business narrative. It’s a form of human-AI co-creation that requires continuously refining inputs based on the AI’s outputs.

But the benefits go beyond just procedural experience with generative AI. This revised assignment design synthesises many core pedagogical priorities:

• Developing critical thinking and problem-solving by having students grapple with open-ended challenges without prescribed resolutions.
• Promoting self-directed learning as students synthesize domain knowledge to effectively scope and critique their AI-generated case studies.
• Facilitating more authentic skill application by blending theoretical concepts with dynamic, contextual business scenarios.
• Nurturing responsible innovation by having students evaluate the AI model’s blind spots and consider ethical implications.
• Cultivating written and oral communication abilities through crafting well-structured cases and presenting findings

To help prepare students, I’ll provide support in the form of an example case I created using Gen-AI to illustrate well-scoped versus poor case study prompts. There will also be workshop sessions where they get feedback on draft prompts and outputs.

Additionally, the assignment will have built-in points for peer review. Students will share their AI-generated cases, provide and receive feedback on areas that need greater nuance or realism, and have opportunities to further refine their narratives through this iterative critique process.

The final deliverable will involve students presenting a comprehensive rationalization of their case study – the context and plausibility of their fictitious company, the key scaling challenges they chose to focus on, their prompt engineering approach, the AI’s strengths and limitations they had to navigate, ethical considerations around its outputs, and their proposed frameworks for effectively analysing the case.

I’m under no illusion that this revised assessment instantaneously solves all our pedagogy challenges. It’s simply an iterative step in evolving how we mindfully incorporate generative AI’s capabilities into curriculum design for more engaging, higher-order learning experiences. I look forward to getting student feedback and continually refining the approach.

But I am confident that immersing learners in these human-AI co-creation processes is vital for developing core competencies they’ll need. If we want our curricula to remain relevant and prepare graduates for future workforce demands, we must thoughtfully integrate generative AI into assessments and pedagogy. This new case study assignment strives to put that principle into practice in an authentic, purposeful way. I’m excited to pilot it next year and continue adapting our approaches to harness generative AI’s creative potential responsibly.

• Increased Funding: More financial resources allocated to universities for developing and expanding enterprise education programs.
• Grants and Scholarships: Introduction of new grants and scholarships specifically aimed at encouraging students to engage in entrepreneurial activities.
• Research and Development: Enhanced support for research in entrepreneurial education, leading to more advanced and effective teaching methods.

• Ease of Starting a Business: Simplified regulations and reduced bureaucratic hurdles for starting new businesses can encourage more students to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.
• Intellectual Property Laws: Strong protections for intellectual property can incentivize innovation and entrepreneurship among students and faculty.
• Immigration Policies: Policies that attract international students and entrepreneurs can enrich the entrepreneurial ecosystem within universities.

• Curriculum Integration: Encouraging the inclusion of entrepreneurial courses in diverse academic programs, ensuring that all students have access to enterprise education regardless of their major.
• Experiential Learning: Promoting hands-on, practical learning experiences such as internships, incubators, and startup competitions.
• Industry Collaboration: Fostering partnerships between universities and industry to provide students with real-world entrepreneurial experiences and mentorship opportunities.

• Tech Infrastructure: Investment in technology infrastructure within universities can provide students with the tools they need to innovate and develop new business ideas.
• Innovation Hubs: Establishing and supporting innovation hubs and technology parks that serve as incubators for student-led startups.
• Research Grants: Providing grants for research in emerging technologies can spur entrepreneurial ventures in cutting-edge fields.

• Public Campaigns: Launching campaigns that highlight the importance and benefits of entrepreneurship.
• Success Stories: Showcasing successful entrepreneurs, particularly those who have emerged from university programs, to inspire current students.
• Educational Outreach: Engaging with secondary schools to foster an entrepreneurial mindset from a young age, creating a pipeline of future university students interested in enterprise education.

Durham: New National Social Enterprise Competition for Students & Graduates

Durham University has partnered with the Ford Family Foundation to launch Ignite, a new funding competition supporting social enterprises emerging from higher education. Ignite aims to shine a spotlight on our tremendous social entrepreneurs and will culminate in a pitching event at The Shard in October. The winner will receive a £20,000 grant, with a further £30,000 shared between four other contenders. In addition to funding, prizes also include 1:1 coaching from Cambio Consultancy and I.P. support from Mathys & Squire. Deadline for entries is 19th July via the Ignite website.

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Edinburgh: Grow Awards

The University of Edinburgh celebrates its student entrepreneurs with the annual Inspire, Launch, Grow Awards. During Inspire, Launch Grow, founders pitch their company to an expert panel of judges, competing for a total prize money of £47,000. This year’s keynote speaker and winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award was Elena Höge, founder of social gaming company Yaldi Games.At the Inspire Launch Grow – the ‘Oscars of Entrepreneurship’ Professor Sir Peter Mathieson said: We are proud to support a thriving culture of entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh, where enterprise is increasingly part of the student experience.

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Anglia Ruskin University (ARU): Freelancer Fast-Start Programme

In May, ARU ran an intensive “Freelancer Fast-Start Programme”, supporting 25 final-year students to become “invoice-ready”. Curated to support mindset, skills and ecosystem, the programme covered everything from marketing & brand to legal & tax, and sales and negotiation. There was a focus on real-world application and professional networks to advance the participants’ freelance ventures. The programme culminated in a showcase event and prize giving, with 92% rating the programme highly; 68% intending to register a business within six months, and 36% already engaging potential clients. Participants’ self-rated scores on freelancing knowledge and confidence increased significantly after completing the programme.

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Huddersfield: Entrepreneurs: Talent, Temperament, Opportunity and Mindset
The 4^th Edition of John Thompson’s textbook, written with the late Bill Bolton – Entrepreneurs: Talent, Temperament, Opportunity and Mindset – has recently been published by Routledge. It is in three parts. The first part dissects the attributes of successful entrepreneurs and allows readers to self-assess, using the authors’ established FACETS framework, and then discusses what is meant by an entrepreneurial mindset – the main addition to this new edition. Part Two concerns the process of entrepreneurship, encompassing starting a business, opportunity and strategy. Part Three comprises over 100 case vignettes separated into “classic”, business, social and culture entrepreneurs (in design, art, music, media and sport) before a final chapter on “entrepreneurs in the shadows” includes some whose business is crime.

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Nottingham: YES24

Applications are open for our 29th cohort! Your Entrepreneurs Scheme (YES) is a competition developed to raise awareness among PhD students, postdocs and technicians how ideas can be commercialised. Taking place this autumn, participants are invited to develop a hypothetical business and pitch their plan to demonstrate that the business could be investable and ultimately successful. This fictional business plan is a great way to learn about entrepreneurship without using an idea that comes out of current research (avoiding any problems with disclosure). Our pitch day hosts are GSK, Syngenta and Campden BRI. Bursaries available. Discover more here; join one of our 30-minute online information sessions or help raise awareness.

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Lincoln: Creative Start-up Awards
Oliver Whitehead, founder of Synx Games, has won the Creative Start-Up Award for the Midlands in the Start-Up Awards.As a second-year Computer Science student at the University of Lincoln, Oliver balances his studies with the running of Synx Games, a company that creates servers and content for games such as Roblox and Minecraft.Synx has blossomed in the last year, reaching 100,000 unique players across 2 servers, 15,000 members on their Discord communities with over 4 million unique messages.Oliver has been supported by Student Enterprise, as well as taking up an office at the University’s incubation centre, Sparkhouse.

Sheffield: ‘Emerge: Be Enterprising’ programme

The University of Sheffield’s new ‘Emerge: Be Enterprising’ programme held its first Awards Showcase in April, marking a milestone in its mission to capture student entrepreneurship talent across campus.  The programme cultivates a culture of enterprise by recognising innovative business ideas. Sponsored by Santander Universities, #EmergeAwards24 featured ventures tackling social challenges and sustainability. Out of 70+ applications from students, staff and alumni, 4 winners were awarded funding and further mentorship to help launch their business. This injection of resources aims to strengthen Sheffield’s innovation ecosystem, fostering the development of homegrown businesses that will contribute to the city’s economic vibrancy. 

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UCL: Ten university startups take part in new UK-Swiss entrepreneurship exchange programme

The programme, run between UCL and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), has given ten startups, five from each university, the chance to learn, connect and explore new opportunities.

The startups spent a week together split between Lausanne and London. They received a bespoke introduction to university facilities, laboratories, innovation clusters and key players in their industry. Read more.

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Swansea: Founders of the Future

Swansea University collaborates with Anne Boden MBE on the ‘Founders of the Future’ initiative, aiding women-led high-growth enterprises. The UK government taskforce aims to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs, emphasizing diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship. University staff have worked with Anne to promote the taskforce, recently hosting a ‘Founders of the Future’ event at the University. This event featured panel discussions from women in business (including Alumni Joelle Drummond, Founder of Drop Bear Beer) and overcoming adversity, attended by students, staff, and local school children. The project includes case studies highlighting the journeys of women involved in the taskforce and their businesses.