Call for input! Supporting Inclusive Entrepreneurship – Neurodiversity & Entrepreneurship Education

Written by Rob Edwards

Following a lively and well-attended session at IEEC2023, Dr Lorna Treanor & Rob Edwards are calling for examples of good practice, the teaching and learning resources that have worked for you and the useful techniques that have benefitted your neurodivergent students.

In this way, they hope to assist in the development of a suite of good practice resources to benefit colleagues and catalyse the delivery of effective, inclusive enterprise education for ND, and indeed all, students.

See the outputs from the session and the call for further participation here.

AGCAS and EEUK launch the first Fast-Track to Enterprise for Careers Professionals

Written by Helen Hook

Careers Services are being required more and more to provide enterprise and entrepreneurship support to students.  To support Careers Professionals to do this effectively AGCAS (The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service) and EEUK launched a bespoke training event for Careers Professionals to share good practice from across the sector.

We welcomed Careers Advisors, Employability Leads, Entrepreneurship Co-ordinators, and Heads of Service to collectively learn and discuss:

  • Useful frameworks and toolkits which could be used.
  • Insights and approaches when supporting student start-ups.
  • Embedding Enterprise Education into the curriculum.

“I felt that the AGCAS training was great to have such a mix of professionals and how they work with students, how their institutions worked in terms of enterprise delivery and also to just get a sense I am not the only one who feels a little out of my depths with the topic at times” (University of Chester)

 

Latest #EntEd news from our EEUK members

Written by Lynn O'Byrne


Liverpool: Leadership Innovation Award
Alison Pountney, Entrepreneurship & Start-up Consultant at The University of Liverpool has received a Leadership Innovation Award at the Liverpool Chamber Innovation in Business Awards. The award celebrates the achievements of those who have modernised and innovated to the advantage of their business, team, and wider community. The annual awards celebrate local businesses and individuals who have driven their organisation forward throughout the year. Also on the night, recent University of Liverpool graduate Noura Qusairy was crowned Young Person of the Year, in recognition of her work in establishing Yamama, a new sustainable and ethical Bar, Kitchen and Café in the Baltic Triangle with a focus on supporting refugees.


Southampton: Sustainable Enterprise Challenge
Southampton Business School has been delivering a sustainable enterprise challenge to almost 200 Year 9 pupils across the city. The challenge, called Make Your Place, focuses on working with young people to help them explore local training, employment and business opportunities through developing products, services, and activities to make their place healthier, safer, and more sustainable. The programme, led by Enterprise Fellow, Sian Campbell, has just received over £25k of Higher Education Innovation Funding from the newly launched Sustainability and Resilience Institute to develop the program further, working with college and university students, and in other towns and cities. For further information please get in touch with Sian at s.e.campbell@soton.ac.uk.


ARU: ‘Entrepreneurs on the Move at Anglia Ruskin University
Throughout the autumn, ARU will be hosting the Entrepreneurs on the Move networking events organised by Connected Cambridge. This is a fantastic opportunity for local entrepreneurs to engage with ARU students and graduates and to share their expertise and entrepreneurial journeys. So far, we heard from two amazing women: Ruth Everard and Claire Martinsen. Ruth runs Dragonmobility, a social enterprise that provides innovative engineering solutions to enhance mobility and accessibility for individuals and Claire is the founder of Breckland Orchard, a company that provides a wide range of carbonated soft drinks that use spring water as a base.’


Oxford Brookes: Digital Entrepreneurship
Oxford Brookes colleagues (Paul Jackson, Samia Kamal, and Philip Clegg) presented a session at IEEC as a follow on from their EEUK hosted Event at Brookes in February 2023 on Digital Entrepreneurship. The IEEC session, “Unpacking Digital Entrepreneurship: Establishing definitions, support needs, and preparing for businesses of the future,” encouraged participants to consider, “what specific areas of interest there may be for Enterprise Educators in this space”, and, “how might we better support digital and data-driven start-ups?” Feedback from that session is shared here, and a Community of Practice is proposed, with the opportunity to express interest via this link.

Download the pres


The Weave:Essex Business Accelerator

The Weave is hosting the seventh iteration of the Essex Business Accelerator, a seven-week entrepreneurial education program that helps entrepreneurs communicate effectively with their audience. The program has supported over seventy micro businesses and concludes with a pitching event where experts provide feedback. This is the final iteration of the program, and many businesses have joined The Weave community for ongoing support. The University of Essex has commissioned The Weave to deliver the iTeams program in 2024, bringing together students, entrepreneurs, and mentors to solve real-world problems. Other universities can now benefit from this program by contactingjames@wearetheweave.co.uk.


QMUL: Female Founders Retreat

In 2023, the Enterprise Team of Queen Mary received a small grant to create a pilot Female Founders Retreat to build a supportive network for women entrepreneurs paving the way for greater equality within their chosen career path. Focusing on collaboration, knowledge sharing and wellbeing through business and somatic sessions, the retreat centred on scaling sustainably and avoiding burnout. Since, the network developed from 8 to 40 members, embedded in a learning programme with bi-monthly meetups, speaker events, and more to grow the community. The retreat’s achievements showcase the huge potential for supporting Queen Mary’s women entrepreneurs.


Falmouth: Anthropy
Students from Cornwall Business School, Falmouth University studying Business Management, Sustainable Festival Management, and Creative Events Management recently collaborated with industry partner ‘Anthropy’ on a high profile 3-day event held at the Eden Project, Cornwall.  Anthropy is an annual gathering that aims to bring together diverse leaders to spark innovation and foster fresh thinking to inspire a better Britain. The event included a sustainable fashion show in partnership with waste reduction charity WRAP that showcased the potential for greater circularity and the use of deadstock fabric. Leah Shrimpton, a student, said, “My time working at Anthropy helped grow my passion to become a manager.”

Latest #EntEd news from our EEUK members

Written by Lynn O'Byrne

Surrey: Global Graduate Award in Entrepreneurship
A first of its kind for the University of Surrey, the Global Graduate Award in Entrepreneurship offering co-curricular credits for students’ practical entrepreneurial endeavours has launched this month. In the first 5 days of registration the course was oversubscribed by 5 times its original capacity, receiving an extraordinary uptake of 217 students for the hands-on programme. The team behind the GGA including Student Enterprise, academics from the Business School and other Faculties are scaling up the programme due to its popularity and in doing so aim to create a substantial pipeline of innovation and achieve a significant impact on student experience. More info here.


Strathclyde: Social Enterprise World Forum 2023

As part of the Social Enterprise World Forum 2023 in Amsterdam, Strathclyde Business School hosted a workshop on “Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Rural Areas” on October 10, 2023. This session in partnership with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and VU Amsterdam, featured global academic and policy experts on rural entrepreneurship ecosystems including Niels Bosma, Sreevas Sahasranamam, and Ira Chatterjee, alongside global practitioners from this space. Read more here. 


Aston: EPIC Young Entrepreneur Awards 2023

Two startup businesses run by Team Academy Aston Business Enterprise Development students won prizes in an awards scheme to celebrate young entrepreneurs.The EPIC Young Entrepreneur Awards 2023 celebrate and recognise the achievements of young people to become a startup business. ArtByZakia, a company focused on creating personalised and handmade gifts, won the Inclusion Champion Award. Its founder is Zakia Ashraf, a BSc Business Enterprise Development graduate 2020-2023. Brainy Bar, which produces energy bars that are hand-made from natural ingredients, won the Fresh Taste Award. Current BSc Business Enterprise Development student, Dominik Kulcsar, is operations manager. Read more here.


Bristol: Student Design Awards
Our Student Design Awards are marking one hundred years since their launch.
Challenges for 2023-24 are live and range from: how can we use AI to tackle the impacts of climate change and how might we improve cultures of care?


Westminster: WeNetwork Alumna Designs Dress Worn by British PM’s Wife at G20 Summit
Manimekala Fuller, alumna of the University of Westminster, recently gained widespread recognition when her designed lavender marbled dress was worn by Akshata Murty, the wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at the G20 summit in Delhi. Manimekala’s remarkable journey into entrepreneurship was profoundly shaped by the Westminster Enterprise Network and the Elevate program, where she gained essential business skills. She said: “Through the Incubator, I learnt about the basics of how to ideate, launch and run a business, which helped me hugely as I didn’t have any entrepreneurship or business experience previously.” Manimekala’s success highlights how WeNetwork empowers aspiring entrepreneurs. Find out more.


Durham University Alumni Angel Network
At Durham we have just launched our Durham University Alumni Angel Network. The opportunity – many of our alums expressing an interest in investing in Durham student & graduate founder led businesses and many of our founders’ requiring sources of external funding. The solution – the alumni angel network. Following months of planning, consulting, assembling the roster of qualified members and curating deal flow we have held our first two events. Five businesses have successfully pitched to our twenty-five UK & US based members. If you’d like to know more, please get in touch – chris.gilman@durham.ac.uk


Herts: Global Entrepreneurship Week 2023 at Herts, November 13-19
Global Entrepreneurship Week is a global celebration of entrepreneurship that occurs every year in November. This year it will be held from November 13 to November 19.At Herts, we will be holding a series of events throughout this week to join in this international celebration. With the global theme for this year’s celebration being ‘Entrepreneurs Thrive Here’, we will be highlighting the impact our students and graduates are making in the local and international economic communities. These events will focus on the experience of our entrepreneurs already thriving in an international market or exploring the exploitation of one.

Latest #EntEd news from our EEUK members

Written by Lynn O'Byrne

Surrey: Student Enterprise

Student Enterprise at the University of Surrey took a different approach to prize-giving at its latest annual Hackathon17 this year. Instead of cash prizes of the past, the winning team of students participated in a bespoke Socials Leaders Programme with ProjectCHAKRA and lived the values of the UN SDGs. The themes of the programme were enterprise, innovation and personal leadership development . Their experience spanned meeting grassroots entrepreneurs in India’s informal labour market and NGOs working with slum communities, to multi-national scientific venture funds and UNDP partner social enterprises. The programme was “transformational” according to the students – read more here.


 Latvian Entrepreneurs at Anglia Ruskin University 

‘Last month, the Anglia Ruskin University hosted a week-long Latvia-Cambridge Venture Camp (LCVC) in collaboration with Cambridge Worldwide Associates, CONNECT LatviaRiga Technical University, the University of Latvia, and the College of Business Administration

During a full programme of visits and workshops, the LCVC fostered a vibrant environment where participants discussed product and business development, finances, marketing, and entrepreneurial mindsets. The week culminated in a brilliant set of 10 pitches by Venture Camp attendees, who received feedback and guidance on their business ideas, and a celebratory awards dinner at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. What an enthusiastic, bright, and engaged group!’


Buckingham: Two teams of Buckingham Medical Students awarded £1000 each after a short Clinical Innovation and Enterprise course and pitch.
On 1st September 2023 two teams of University of Buckingham medical students pitched to “Buckingham Angels” at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Research & Innovation Centre in Stoke Mandeville Hospital with an audience of nurses, doctors and BHT CEO.  Much to everyone’s amazement, one of the Angels, Philanthropist Dr. Roger Jefcoate, personally awarded both teams £1000 to encourage them to work with Buckingham Enterprise and Innovation Unit and BHT Research & Innovation Centre to develop and commercialise their Apps. More Information here.

 


Greenwich:  ‘Educational Leader of the Year’ award

After being nominated and shortlisted in August, the Generator at University of Greenwich has won the ‘Educational Leader of the Year’ award at the Foundervine Changemaker Awards 2023. This award recognises an education company that has made significant strides in revolutionising the way people learn, teach, and interact with educational resources. Foundervine work to remove the social and economic barriers to innovation, disrupting the status quo in everything they do.  Lynette Lisk, Generator Programmes Manager said, “It is an honour to win Education Leader of the Year and see the hard work the Generator team has put into empowering students through enterprise recognised.”


KCL: London Demo Day 2023

20 start-ups from Imperial, King’s College London, LSE and UCL pitched their innovations to an audience of 400+, including 200+ investors, partners, students and alumni, who had gathered in King’s College London’s Bush House building for London Demo Day. 2023 marks the first year that LSE have joined the event. 50% of the pitching start-ups were health-related and all aligned with social impact. Since 2019, 45 innovative teams have pitched through this collaboration, collectively raising £45m+. Read more here.

Reflections from our IEEC2023 track chairs

Written by Rob Edwards

Many thanks to our track chairs for giving their time to ensuring that the IEEC2023 programme was of high quality again, and featured such a broad range of topics to engage our delegates.
We asked the track chairs to share their thoughts and will be featuring their reflections across this and next month’s newsletter.

Track 1: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Research
(Chairs: Dr Breda O’Dwyer, Dr Andreas Walmsley)
The Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Research track ended up with more questions than it answered; a good thing we think. Sessions, which comprised interactive presentations as well as Pecha Kucha styles of delivery, resulted in live debate. Themes around communities of practice, early childhood entrepreneurship education, methodological innovations, the (under)representation of BAME educators and threshold concepts in EE demonstrated the diversity of research currently being undertaken in EE research.
Despite the expansion of EE, the presentations highlighted challenges to educators of delivering EE, many of them at an institutional level (institution understood both as the university but also more widely societal structures). The notion of challenge also applies to the willingness to challenge our taken-for-granted beliefs, as discussed by Martin Lackeus in his keynote presentation.
The EEER track evidenced a lot of willingness, and therefore value, among attendees to listen to, and learn from, others.
Best in Track winner: 
Threshold Concepts of Entrepreneurship in Creative Industries
Dr Berrbizne Urzelai, University of the West of England; Dr Lucy Hatt, Newcastle University; Dr. Patricia Carracedo, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
The best in track winner holds much potential for future work, trying to link creative industries with EE, demonstrating the power of language, the need to understand your audience in relation to then tailoring your delivery of EE, the potential inherent in creating diverse teams for student hackathons, enterprise challenges etc. Finally, the presentation also offered insights into a hitherto underexplored methodology, as well as offering value to policymakers surrounding freelancers and their contribution to the economy.

Track 4: Sustainability and the Role of Enterprise Education
(Chairs: Dr Kelly Smith, Dr Christopher Moon)
The SDG track again attracted a series of high-quality presentations from colleagues on a variety of sustainability topics. We were treated to an interactive workshop including lego play to showcase methods for teaching sustainable enterprise education at Newcastle University, a fascinating session on mentoring in the context of refugees in partnership with Open Door Policy, an update from a European University collaboration highlighting their co-designed initiatives, an invitation to participate in the Sustainable Business Challenge currently delivered by six universities, insights from the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey, and a focus on towns and cities by Southampton Business School including digital badging for school pupils based on enterprise skills. Thus, the sessions were a good variety of formats, great for networking, with useful materials and opportunities get involved.
Best in Track winner:
Social-Ecological Innovation for Sustainable Transitions: frontiers and opportunities
Matteo Giusti, Institute for Sustainability, University of Surrey

The best in track winner addressed the scientific foundation for our focus on sustainable entrepreneurship education, and opportunities for social-ecological innovations.


Track 6: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Teaching and Curriculum
(Track 6a Chairs: Lauren Caple, Dr Richard Tunstall)
A key theme that came out in several sessions was around challenging the assumptions that underlie our practice as enterprise educators and questioning conventional approaches / forms of knowledge, as well as recognising the diverse needs of students and accepting there is no one ideal type of entrepreneurial student.
Creative and playful approaches to EE delivery in the curriculum were highlighted, including those which stretched students in terms of the ways they think about their ventures / enterprising activities, e.g. through deeper consideration of ethical implications and culturally informed entrepreneurship which moves beyond the widely adopted Western approaches, as well interdisciplinary approaches to modules / curriculum delivery which being together students with a diverse range of skills and knowledge.
Challenges were highlighted around lack of shared understanding amongst staff of key concepts such as enterprise and entrepreneurial mindset. The need for senior leadership direction was highlighted, as well as developing communities of practice for EE across institutions to move away from siloed working.
Best in Track winner:
Towards a culturally aware model for Creative Enterprise education
Siân Prime, Goldsmiths; Adrian De La Court, Goldsmiths

Applications now open for EEUK Committees

Applications now open for EEUK Committees

EEUK is supported by a number of committees with specific responsibilities, all of which make a valuable contribution to the successful operations of the organisation. Serving on an EEUK committee is a great opportunity to raise your profile within the enterprise education community, and to network with other EE professionals.

The committees are populated by volunteers from our community of EEUK Associates; that is, any employee of our Member organisations that identifies with our purpose of enabling excellence in enterprise education and start-up support.

We are now pleased to announce that applications are being welcomed for two of our committees.

Nominations and Representation Committee

Chair: Megan Powell Vreeswijk

This committee supports the election of EEUK Directors and the appointment of EEUK Associates to the Advisory Council and the Board’s Sub-committees. It is also responsible for monitoring equality, diversity and inclusion across the organisation and its committees. There are four places on the committee for EEUK Associates, and there are currently four vacancies.

Governance and Risk Committee

Chair: Steve Aicheler

As well as supporting the governance of EEUK and overseeing its financial performance, this committee is responsible for the environmental impact of our organisation and activities, and the relationships we have with strategic partners. Members will also be involved with business development activity to support the growth of EEUK. There are three places on this committee for EEUK Associates and there are currently 2 vacancies. We are particularly interested to hear from EEUK Associates with experience in risk management, charity/CIC governance or financial management.

To apply for any vacancies for EEUK Associates please complete the Committee Nomination Form, selecting the group you are interested in. If you are interested in more than one group, you will need to submit for each group that you’d like to be considered for.

Chairs of new EEUK Pathway Networks – apply by 31st October

Written by Rob Edwards

EEUK is setting up three new advisory networks focussed on the three professional pathways that EEUK Associates identify with and are recognised by the EEUK Fellowship: Academic, Practitioner and Influencer.

The Academic/Practitioner/Influencer Networks are advisory groups to the EEUK Board but do not hold a formal role in the governance of EEUK. Each Network has the following principal aims:

  1. To provide a forum for individual associate members who identify with a particular professional pathway to meet (online or face to face), to discuss relevant issues and topics associated with their professional pathway;
  2. To advise the EEUK Board of issues and opportunities related to the relevant professional pathway.
  3. To generate ideas and options for consideration by the Board and its Committees with regard to problems and opportunities faced by the relevant professional pathway.
  4. To provide feedback to the Board about EEUK’s products, services and plans for the future from the perspective of the relevant pathway.

For more information about the work of the Networks, please read the Terms of Reference here.

Applications are now being invited from EEUK Associates who wish to put themselves forward to chair any of the three Networks. Please apply via the form on the EEUK website. Closing date: 31st October 2023

Latest #EntEd news from our EEUK members

Written by Lynn O'Byrne

KCL: Women Entrepreneurs Retreat 

King’s Entrepreneurship Institute recently hosted its 5th annual Women Entrepreneurs Retreat and for the first time invited other UK university colleagues and their communities to join us. Over 60+ women founders attended the 3-day jam-packed weekend exploring all aspects of building a venture. Bringing the King’s community together with educators and students from eight other UK universities was truly special. Read more about the top five things that made the 2023 King’s Women Entrepreneurs Retreat the best one yet! Read more.


Manchester: 2023 Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award Winners 

The annual Harari Award, in association with Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Andre Geim, helps to establish commercially viable new ventures, relating to graphene or other 2D materials, from University of Manchester students, post-doctoral researchers and recent graduates. The award is co-funded by the North American Foundation for The University of Manchester, through the support of University alumnus, Dr Eli Harari, and his wife Britt. First prize (£50,000): MouseAble – the first on-skin device for wireless cardiovascular monitoring of free-moving mice. Second prize (£20,000): Eye Venture – smart contact lens systems, delivering unobtrusive detection and monitoring of ocular and systemic diseases. Sustainability Award (£10,000): Aqua Catalysis – treatment of industrial wastewater.


‘The Anglia Ruskin University Start-up Podcast is here!
We are thrilled to announce that this August, the ARU Start-Up Podcast aired its first episode! The ARU Start-Up Podcast series will explore the challenging and thrilling world of enterprise and entrepreneurship. Each episode will bring thought-provoking insights, answers and stories focused on enterprise matters such as investment, resources, business development and much more! Our guests include well-seasoned entrepreneurs, current and graduate students passionate about becoming self-employed and professionals who are making an impact in their industry. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at startupsupport@aru.ac.uk.’

New EEUK Board Members

Written by Sal Edwards

Following the recent election, we are delighted to announce the five new EEUK Board Members who will be joining us from next month.

Jennie Baptiste, University of Westminster

Cherisse Hoyte, Coventry University

Vicky Mountford-Brown, Northumbria University

Ruth Rowe, Bridgend College

Richard Tunstall, University of Leeds (2nd Term)

We look forward to working with them in the future and congratulate them on their election to the EEUK Board.