2009/2010 Project Fund

Funding of up to £11,000 was available to enable staff in Higher Education Institutions in the South East of England to carry out small research or teaching and learning projects relevant to the aims and objectives of HEEG. Examples of potential projects included research into an enterprise education issue, promotion of Enterprise Education within an institution, embedding of Enterprise Education into the curriculum, or the development of small-scale learning resources. 

Nurturing social enterprise: growth and sustainability in times of economic uncertainty
Dr Mine Karataz-Ozkan & Graham Manville

Social entrepreneurship has become increasingly important in the UK and globally due to a crucial role that social enterprises play in addressing complex social problems and generating social innovations. Social enterprises are faced with the difficulty of sustaining and growing their businesses, in common with many commercial enterprises. This project aims to address the problems associated with the sustainability and growth of social enterprises and contribute to the social enterprise sector regionally and nationally, by embedding social enterprise education within the curriculum. 

Punch Above Your Weight: the role of social media in the development of entrepreneurial activities
Lisa Harris

This project will develop an online training resource supported by face to face workshops delivered in university departments throughout the region. We will showcase the increasing importance of Web 2.0 tools and attitudes in the development of entrepreneurial activity, focusing on the use of blogs, wikis, bookmarking and social networking sites to enable entrepreneurs to build networks, identify and share new resources, and enhance their brand image.

Using an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) to teach Enterprise
Simon Brookes

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) were developed as a viral marketing platform for large corporations. ARG participants collaborate in a real‐time virtual environment which is created and made real, by using a combination of websites, social networking environments, other media like images or video, made interactive through communications technologies like phone calls, texts, emails and real‐life events. This project aims to take these broad ARG concepts and transform them into a platform which can be used to teach enterprise education to undergraduate students.

Designplus: Enhancing Entrepreneurship in Undergraduate Design Major Projects
Stephen Green

4,500 final year undergraduate design students in the London region typically undertake a Major Project which will include aspects of work which could be enhanced through a focus on entrepreneurship factors. This project will hold a workshop with staff from Kingston and Brunel Universities, develop teaching materials, case studies and lead a dissemination event for design teaching staff in the South East based on enhancing entrepreneurship in design Major Projects. Design students, staff and collaborating businesses are all intended beneficiaries.

Measuring Enterprise Potential in Undergraduates
Rosemary Athayde

The project will consist of an evaluation of two undergraduate programmes at Kingston University with the aim of developing a research methodology which can be disseminated to all the institutions in the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group (HEEG) in the South East. The research methodology will incorporate a qualitative approach using student focus groups and key informant interviews with course directors and lecturing staff, along with a quantitative element using a specially designed aItude scale to measure ‘enterprise potential’ in undergraduates.

Turning Creative People to Productive Employment in Buckinghamshire
Lorraine Watkins-Mathys

The project follows on from a seminar held by the Faculty of Creativity & Culture and seeks to turn creative talents into productive employment within the region. It will do this by following up creative talents interested in developing their business ideas and providing them with an action‐learning programme, and by undertaking research among the creative talents about their entrepreneurial development.

An exploration of the use of student-run real businesses in the region, the UK and internationally as the learning for all or part of the award of a university degree
Paul Tosey

This project will examine the experiences of HE institutions in the region, in the UK and internationally who use student‐run real businesses as part or all of the evaluation and award of a degree. The aim is to create a consortium of interested enterprise educators, businesses and organisations to learn and share best practice internationally and also to stimulate institutional passion for innovation to develop entrepreneurship education to include “learning by doing” in real long‐term student‐run businesses.

Creative Enterprise
Uwe Derksen

The ability to apply creative ideas, knowledge and skills to the real world is a crucial element in developing enterprising competencies. The university encourages its students and their tutors to demonstrate their enterprise skills through an annual competition with support from industry, developing solutions in sustainability. The project will build on the established competition to develop in‐depth tools/resources/case studies for dissemination and learning and teaching which will be consolidated at a dissemination event. The material will be available on the web, to be used as learning material and showcase creative enterprise, The project will encourage the sharing of knowledge and expertise and seek interaction and feedback, both within the HEEG community and external stakeholders.