The UK may be ranked as one of the best countries in the world to start a business, but evidence from growing skills gaps, and the decline in graduates’ entrepreneurial aspirations suggest that higher education may not be contributing as it should to the enterprise environment. Enterprising Education in UK Higher Education brings together the challenges of embedding enterprise education in universities and colleges, identifies current debates around their roles and explores research, theory and practice to deliver roadmaps for innovative enterprise education. This book provides solid and clear guidance to practitioners and academics who are starting their journey into enterprising education, as well as those who are more experienced, but understand that the traditional approaches limit the options of future graduates. It collates the theory and practice of enterprise education in the UK higher education sector and business engagement with wider stakeholders. Drawing on theory and best practice, and illustrated with a wide range of the examples and cases, it will provide invaluable guidance to researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers.

Social enterprise is becoming an increasingly crucial feature within the higher education sector. Traditionally, it sits within business and economic subject areas, but has close ties with the community sector, where the concept is seen as a linchpin connecting the public, private and voluntary sectors together. The connection that social enterprise offers is seen by many governments around the world to have the potential to galvanize economic growth after the global financial crisis of 2008. Social enterprise is becoming an ever-more important aspect of research, teaching and learning, especially in the higher education sector. Universities across the world perceive it to be an advantage to students trying to obtain a job after completing their studies. Further to this, the study of social enterprise also provides opportunities for students to set up their own organizations in profit or non-profit settings. This edited volume provides a joined-up thinking approach to social enterprise within the social sciences. The contributions here examine theoretical approaches to social enterprise, addressing its influence on wider society and its fundamental importance within the higher education sector. Merging these ideas, the book offers a number of best practice examples of social enterprise within teaching and learning in the social sciences.

This topical new book provides an illuminating overview of enterprise education, and poses the question as to whether current establishments have adequate systems in place to prepare students for the world of work. Addressing the increasing need for graduates with practical skills and expertise in the labour market, this collection of insightful chapters analyses the opportunities that are available for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop enterprise skills and experience key aspects of starting and running a business, whilst in a supported environment such as an educational program or incubator scheme. With comprehensive discussion of higher education initiatives and empirical examples of experiential learning in the workplace, this book is an important and timely read for those researching business enterprise, entrepreneurship and higher education more generally.

The important debate on the growing graduate skills gaps, the value of universities to their business communities, and their role (or lack of ) in building entrepreneurial attributes among graduates is growing internationally. Using case studies from universities across the globe, this edited book seeks to bring together leading authors with knowledge, and/or experience, of the challenges of embedding enterprise education in university and college programmes. The text identifies and presents the current debates around the future role of universities and colleges in providing ‘fit for workplace’ graduates, as well as offering insights into the challenges and practices involved in delivering innovative enterprise education. The approach collates examples of ‘best practices’ from global institutions enabling educators to develop ‘blueprints’ for implementing in their own institutions. This innovative and comprehensive text is designed to be a ‘seminal resource’ for academic stakeholders on enterprise education collating diverse international contributions from enterprising universities and colleges. Drawing on both theory and best practice, it provides invaluable guidance to researchers, educators and practitioners considering embedding or expanding enterprising activities into their learning strategy.

This open access book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as business, health, fashion, sociology and geography, the editors and authors employ a cross-disciplinary approach to examine how this concept is being applied in higher education. Divided into three parts, the authors and contributors analyse broader applications of real world learning, student experience of practicing in a real world setting, and how learning strategies can be employed to engage students in real world learning. The editors and contributors provide up-to-date, cross-disciplinary and international insights into how real world learning could be integrated into the higher education curriculum to support effective, relevant and life-long learning for 21st century students.

Policymakers consider enterprise education, and the skills it develops, as increasing student’s employability skills. This book delivers further insight to validate this. Authors provide evidence to inform the entrepreneurial education discipline in terms of best practice, success stories and identify its future direction for key stakeholders.

This book engages ongoing debates about the nature, manifestation and purpose of entrepreneurship education (EE). It presents theoretical and practical perspectives on the challenges and opportunities that entrepreneurship educators face globally to equip undergraduate students with entrepreneurial skills, and more generally, develop their entrepreneurial mindsets and capabilities taking advantage of programmes and curricula available in their ecosystem. Divided into three sections, the chapters, written by recognized experts, deliver distinctive approaches to undergraduate EE, an analysis of entrepreneurial mindset-building perspectives, and cases and proposals of undergraduate entrepreneurship programs that go beyond the traditional higher education milieu. This volume provides entrepreneurship educators with a voice to explain how they participate in the topic of entrepreneurship, how undergraduate students engage and respond to EE, and how institutional frameworks for EE, and more generally the entrepreneurship education ecosystem, support undergraduate EE.