What is The Entrepreneurial University?
Alison Price, NCGE & Monica Gibson-Sweet and Jane Kettle, HEA
Shaping HEIs from curriculum to strategy: the role of enterprise education
This joint paper seeks to provide a national update from the National Council for Graduate
Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and the Higher Education Academy. By exploring current practice,
together with recent new initiatives, the changing shape of higher education will be
discussed through the impact of enterprise within the curriculum and its potential impact
upon the design of HEIs.
What is the Entrepreneurial University?
Entrepreneurial universities are places where entrepreneurship is part of the fabric of life.
Since we were founded in 2004, the NCGE has developed the model of the entrepreneurial
university, encouraging educators, Enterprise Champions and
university leaders to embed entrepreneurship throughout their
institutions.
An
Entrepreneurial
University
is
characterised
by strong
leadership that develops entrepreneurial capacities for all
students and staff across its campus; strong ties with external
stakeholders
that
deliver
added
value;
the
delivery
of
entrepreneurial outcomes that make an impact to people and
organisations;
innovative
learning
techniques
that
inspire
entrepreneurial action; open boundaries that encourage effective flows of knowledge
between organisations; multi-disciplinary approaches to education that mimic real-world
experience and focus on solving complex world challenges; and the drive to promote the
application of entrepreneurial thinking and leadership.
The ‘entrepreneurial university’ concept was inspired and informed by the work of the
NCGE’s Academic Adviser, Professor Allan Gibb OBE, whose influential paper Towards
The Entrepreneurial University was published by the NCGE in 2005. Since the start, the
NCGE has worked with higher education institutions, Government, business, and other key
stakeholders to transform ‘the entrepreneurial university’ from a concept into a tangible
reality. We recognise innovation and evolution in HE, facilitating the sharing of good practice
internationally; through the IEEP we build pedagogy to embed entrepreneurship education
throughout universities; an Outcomes Framework has been developed to guide universities
and provide targets; and we inform national policy and strategy through building a robust
evidence base of research and the first comprehensive maps of enterprise and
entrepreneurship in higher education.
The Institutional Environment
“How an institution’s culture has been transformed to provide environments for supporting
student enterprise and graduate entrepreneurship and how leadership for driving enterprise
and entrepreneurship is demonstrated.”
In Towards the Entrepreneurial University: Entrepreneurship Education as a lever for
change (2005), Professor Allan Gibb OBE advocates the importance of institutional
environments that support a widely based model of entrepreneurship focused on the
development of entrepreneurial behaviours, attributes and skills. Organisations must utilise
and stimulate these qualities.
Such institutions recognise that the pursuit of entrepreneurial behaviours may be valuable in
a range of contexts, not just in business. It is relevant both to the organisation and to the
individual as worker, consumer and family or community member. Social entrepreneurs who
can organise efforts to tackle challenges and boost social cohesion are net contributors to
their communities. This aligns closely with the core values and aspirations of higher
education – to develop the whole person and engender in them agency to succeed, and to
prepare people willing and able to contribute to civil society and economic development.
Universities with entrepreneurship among their main strategic objectives will reflect this in
their leadership and governance, employing a leader at Pro Vice-Chancellor level
responsible for enterprise and entrepreneurship. They will promote organisational change to
build capacity and widen access to opportunities for entrepreneurship education and
support, and sponsor innovative collaborations with business and other external
stakeholders.
Entrepreneurial Impact
“How an institution’s efforts have affected the nature of entrepreneurial outcomes for staff,
students and graduates; what step-changes have been achieved in the delivery of regional
and national entrepreneurship goals; how the institution captured and demonstrated good
practice and effectiveness; and ways in which the institution’s experiences influenced policy
or practice elsewhere.”
An ambitious, forward-thinking and inclusive institution will bring its staff and students along
with it as it achieves success, inspire their involvement, and generate a collective ‘can-do’
attitude. Entrepreneurial universities carry themselves with confidence and engender trust in
their partners. Their impacts can be felt through linkages throughout the regional economy
and nationally and internationally in their fields of expertise. Performance will be planned,
monitored and bench-marked against competitors, and staff and
departmental
targets
and
incentives
will
encourage
the
attainment of targets for enterprise activity. ‘Open boundaries’
are also a characteristic of entrepreneurial
universities keen to share good practice with
others through participation in initiatives
such
as
the
Academic
Development
Programme (IEEP) and the International
Entrepreneurship Educators Conference (IEEC)
Sept 2-4th 2009.
The work of the NCGE
The National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) is
the national focal point for entrepreneurship in higher education
and collaborates with bodies across the UK and internationally.
The NCGE aims to embed a culture of enterprise and
entrepreneurship throughout all our universities. Now its work is
progressing in exciting new directions. Building on its development
of and support for entrepreneurship educators through the highly
successful
International
Entrepreneurship
Educators
Programme (IEEP), run jointly with Enterprise Educators UK, the
NCGE is pioneering The Entrepreneurial University Leadership
Programme with Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Most universities already
embrace a range of entrepreneurial activities. The leadership challenge is that of
strategically integrating them to provide a wider range of entrepreneurial opportunities for
staff and students. This new Programme is designed for Vice-Chancellors, Pro ViceChancellors and other senior university leaders, and is focused upon the process of leading
change to develop many aspects of ‘the entrepreneurial university’.
This initiative also connects with a wider project led by the NCGE to realise a central tenet of
the Government’s Enterprise Strategy white paper (2008) – the creation of University
Enterprise Networks (UENs). The NCGE’s role is to set up and manage the UENs in order
that they create the right conditions for better, more responsive collaboration between major
business and industry sectors and universities and economic development agencies. The
UENs will ensure more students and graduates acquire the skills for enterprise and
entrepreneurship they need to achieve business growth, whether as employees or in starting
and running their own businesses. FlyingStart is the part of NCGE activity that works
directly with students, postgraduates and graduates (within five years of leaving university).
Its activities are dedicated to getting student and graduate businesses started: supporting
and developing graduate start-ups from ideas to implementation. Central to FlyingStart is
www.FlyingStartOnline.com, a web-based community with 13,800 members which
provides information and online mentoring, as well as networking opportunities, for all UK
student, postgraduate and graduate entrepreneurs (within five years of leaving university). It
carries news of the dedicated FlyingStart Programmes and Workshops that take place
around the country. For more information about the NCGE, visit www.ncge.com