Enterprise education A view from the QAA

1. Enterprise educationA view from the QAA Dr Laura Bellingham Assistant Director Research, Development and Partnerships QAA

2. Definitions • Enterprise education: the process of equipping students (or graduates) with an enhanced capacity to generate ideas and the skills to make them happen. • Entrepreneurship education: equips students with the additional knowledge, attributes and capabilities required to apply these abilities in the context of setting up a new venture or business.

3. Relationship between enterprise and employability • Set of skills defined broadly as ‘employability’ overlap with skills defined under ‘enterprise and entrepreneurship’ - but are not identical. • It may be helpful to consider the profile of a ‘graduate for the 21st century’…

4. Quality Code: learning & teaching • HE providers consider the way their strategic approach reflects themes that cross subject boundaries. These themes reflect topics which may be considered to have a broad relevance to the purposes of HE and its wider context in society, including: • education for sustainability • citizenship • enterprise and entrepreneurship

5. Enterprise education • Provision for enterprise education is fragmented • Combination of intra-curricular and extra-curricular activities • Spans disciplines/subject areas • Assessment and quality assurance frameworks an identified issue

6. QAA guidance for HE providers • Published in September 2012 • Point of reference for HE providers working with students to foster their skills in enterprise & entrepreneurship • Offers a framework rather than prescribing a curriculum

7. Developed in partnership • Higher Education Academy • Enterprise Educators UK • National Association of College & University Entrepreneurs • National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education • Association of Graduate Careers and Advisory Services • Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship • Association of Business Schools

8. Extract: Enterprising behaviours, attributes and skills Students should be able to: • innovate and offer creative solutions to challenging and complex problems • use social skills to build trust, relationships and networks • take action and learn from actions and experimentation • evaluate issues and make decisions in situations of ambiguity, uncertainty and risk

9. Extract: Entrepreneurial effectiveness Students should demonstrate an ability to: • identify target markets • apply business generation strategies • explain the fiscal, social, creative, environmental or other value of products, services or ideas • undertake tasks specific to new venture creation or putting an idea into action

10. Graduates for the 21st Century* • Lifelong learning • Research, scholarship & enquiry • Employability & career development • Global citizenship • Communication and information literacy • Ethical, social & professional understanding • Personal & intellectual autonomy • Collaboration, teamwork & leadership

11. Sir Tim Wilson review: Reflective Recommendation “Universities should reflect on the strategies they use to ensure that students have the opportunity to develop enterprise skills both through the formal curriculum and through optional study or practice, and reflect on the integration of enterprise education in the professional development programmes for academic staff”.

12. What/where next? • The new guidance is not currently part of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education • Hope it will enable rather than constrain innovation, leading to some interesting case studies • How regulatory the landscape becomes in the future depends on evolution coupled with external drivers

13. Discussion points • Working with students and others within the institution on cross-cutting themes? • Quality assurance aspects? • Drivers, incentives, motivation? • More that sector bodies like QAA, HEA, HEFCE and others could be doing? • Experiences of working with the new guidance?