SUPPORTING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR: SUMMARY

SUPPORTING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR: SUMMARY

WHY SHOULD HEIS SUPPORT SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS HEIs have had to become more responsive to student needs as a result of a series of changes in the higher education sector. In addition to becoming more student-led, the sector s wider contribution to society has come under scrutiny. Social entrepreneurship provides an opportunity for the sector to address these developments. Enhancing the student experience through social entrepreneurship The coalition government has given prospective students more information to base their choices through the publication of key statistics (Key Information Sets). These relate to both courses and the institutions, including the employment or further education status of graduates. These aim to help students identify which university is best suited for what they want from their educational experience. This experience is shaped not only by the quality of education but the wider services and facilities offered by an institution and its ability to prepare the student for their future career. Contributing to the wider society by supporting social ventures Scrutiny of how institutions are generating economic and social benefits has increased in recent years through, for example: the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction survey (HE-BCI) and the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The HE Support Programme has formed part of HEFCE s wider commitment to developing the contribution that the Sector makes to the Economy and Society. This report is a summary of Supporting Social Entrepreneurship in the Higher Education Sector. This summary will discuss the key findings of HE Support in terms of these three key areas: student experience, student employability and the benefits to the wider community. Increasing student employability by learning by doing The social entrepreneurship support offered by universities can have a positive effect on employability, where employability is: A set of achievements skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy. Developing student employability has been a constant policy theme over the past decade. According to A review of business-university collaboration by T Wilson i, employers felt that graduates lacked commercial awareness and efforts to develop enterprise skills should not be confined to those in business schools. Furthermore it was also noted that education should be practical and offered through extracurricular activities as well as formal learning. Social entrepreneurship was identified as both an effective mechanism of engaging staff and students who do not have a commercial agenda, and also in helping universities to better benefit their communities ii. i Wilson, T. (2012). A review of business-university collaboration, London. [online]. ii Wilson, T. (2012). A review of business-university collaboration, London. [online].

IMPACT OF THE AWARDS HE Support provided a new and innovative opportunity for students, staff and recent graduates to start up, operate and scale a social venture with the support of their HEI. This opportunity was valued by all Award Winners, particularly contributing to the student s non-educational experience and increasing their employability. Through supporting social entrepreneurs in their institutions, HEIs were able to create a wider community impact also. Student experience was enhanced by offering support to social entrepreneurs Sixty- eight per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their professional networks had improved since the award. The award gave students an increased sense of agency with 82% of student Award Winners believing they are better able to create social change. main skills improved were presentation, networking, organisational and financial. Confidence was also cited by Award Winners as an area of improvement. Eighty per cent reported that their confidence had improved as a result of the award. The Programme highlighted social entrepreneurship as a viable future career; with nearly half (47%) saying they were likely to start another social venture in the future. The wider community was positively impacted Ventures address a wide range of social needs, below we can see the needs that were directly met by the supported social ventures. Over half the students (66%) had never done anything similar to running their own social venture before the award. Here we see how through The HE Support Programme students were able to experience new extracurricular activities in their institutions. The experience of having the award has given me the opportunity of exploring areas which I would not have otherwise. Student Award Winner The awards helped social entrepreneurs on their journey. Forty per cent of student award winners reported that they would have struggled to run their social venture and 25% reported they would not have been able to run the venture at all. When asked to identify where they were on the social entrepreneurs journey at the start and end of their award 80% of Award Winners reported themselves to have advanced. Student employability was increased by developing skills, knowledge and confidence Thirty-six per cent of HEI partners reported that the programme had a positive impact on the employability of the student Award Winners. However the majority 60% felt it was too early to say. Improved skills, confidence and increased awareness of social entrepreneurship as a career option indicate how the programme can impact student s employability. Seventy- nine per cent of student Award Winners felt the award helped to improve their skills either a lot or a fair amount. Qualitative responses show that the The social ventures themselves provided many opportunities for the university, its staff and its students to engage with the wider community. A total number of 101,749 people benefitted with a median average of 40 people for each social venture supported. A number of opportunities were provided to individuals through the social ventures. Over half (64%) provided volunteering opportunities to 2,486 individuals through their social venture. Training was provided by 46% of survey respondents to 2,829 people in total.. Thirty per cent of the supported ventures helped a median average of 2 individuals find a job over the course of their award. Each of these outcomes benefited the Award Winners and the community in which they work. The ventures, in particular staff-run examples, are on course to continue creating these benefits and thus continue wider community engagement.

WHAT NEXT? Developing capacity to support social entrepreneurship in HEIs HEIs identified four key aspects of the programme that enabled them to offer valued opportunities to social entrepreneurs. Backing the person first investing in the individual over and above the venture or idea. Having freedom to innovate designing individual context-specific approach to support and collaborating to deliver quality support to social entrepreneurs. Gaining new networks 67% found the learning and development events that were offered during the programme to partner HEIs to be good or very good. Receiving partner support from UnLtd 84% of HEIs rated the one-to-one support provided by their Partnership Support Manger as good or very good. Seventy eight per cent of institutions reported making changes to the type of support offered to social entrepreneurs. Of these 77% expected these changes to continue and be sustained. Institutions also reported an increase in awareness of social entrepreneurship (84%) and for 87% interest in working with social entrepreneurs had increased. One HEI noted how the increased awareness has contributed towards a new emerging mission for the university. The first phase (HE SE: Dare To Be Different programme) was about testing whether HEIs were fertile ground for finding, funding and supporting social entrepreneurs; the second phase (HE Support) was about testing whether HEIs themselves could offer and sustain high quality social entrepreneurship support. After the success of these phases a new phase called SEE Change has been developed. SEE Change builds on the learning so far while enabling HEIs to become stronger advocates for social entrepreneurship and to further embed this work. This phase launched in Autumn 2014 and consists of directed, varied and tailored strands for building an ecosystem of support for social entrepreneurs in the HE sector. These strands will enable HEIs to build on a deliver social entrepreneurship support in innovative and collaborative ways. The strands are as follows: Regional and Thematic Clusters led by experienced HEIs will act as supporters to new HEIs and other external partners wishing to develop their offer to social entrepreneurs within a place-based or thematic ecosystem. This strand will incorporate Graduate Trainees in leadership roles managing the development of this work. Scale and Growth Partnerships will offer more intensive support to universities to enable them to support high potential social entrepreneurs and ventures seeking higher level funding awards Innovation Partnerships will be nurtured by UnLtd by identify and help to resource collaborations focusing on innovations in support methods and progression routes for social entrepreneurs. A National Knowledge and Learning Network will build both a network of offline engagement events as well as a new online platform led by UnLtd and co-created with HEIs and wider partners. Train the Supporter will train expert practitioners from within the HE sector, and outside it, to support social entrepreneurs. These trained supporters will then help in building a broader and deeper ecosystem of support For more information about how best to support social entrepreneurs within the Higher Education Sector please read the full report available online at www.unltd.org.uk/news/research-publications. To find out more about the current work UnLtd is delivering in the Sector and future developments please visit the SEE Change website www.unltd.org.uk/seechange.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME UnLtd s mission is to reach out and unleash the energies of people to transform the world in which they live, We call these people social entrepreneurs. In order to achieve this mission UnLtd seeks to work with a range of organisations and sectors to develop and build the ecosystem of support for social entrepreneurs. This approach has been pioneered within the Higher Education Sector through the support of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This work has been delivered through a series of phases. The first phase, the HE SE: Dare To Be Different programme, was about testing whether Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were fertile ground for finding, funding and supporting social entrepreneurs. Encouraged by the results iii UnLtd and HEFCE committed themselves to a second phase: HE Support, to test whether HEIs themselves could offer and sustain high quality social entrepreneurship support. UnLtd assisted 56 HEIs across England to deliver models of support for social entrepreneurship in their institutions. Funded by HEFCE this support included awards comprising of cash and additional one-to-one support that reflect the stage the individual social entrepreneur is at. Table 1: Overview of support to HEIs, students, staff and recent graduates (right) Figure 1: Distribution of awards by type of recipient (n=732) 350 300 250 Support given to HEIs by UnLtd Up to 25,000 to make individual awards A dedicated UnLtd Partnership Support Manager who provided continuous one-to-one support to each participating institution A programme of national Learning and Development events led by UnLtd A final conference with HEI-led content for lively knowledge exchange An online learning platform Support to develop a pro bono network from UnLtd s own pro bono and mentoring support network Award types offered to social entrepreneurs by HEI partners Try It providing support and up to 500. Aimed at people who were at the earliest stages of developing an idea for a social venture and planning for delivery. Do It providing support and up to 5,000. Aimed at those who were confident in their venture idea and had the basic skills and plan to Do it. Build It providing support and up to 15,000. Aimed at those who had proved their commitment and venture success over the previous year or more and now wanted to take it to the next level of full sustainability or scaling. Other Some HEIs innovated with supplemental Top Up awards for Award Winners. 200 150 100 Other Try It Do It Build It 50 0 Undergraduate Student Postgraduate Student Recent Graduate Staff Unknown Student iii Ramsay, N. (2011). Unlocking the Potential of Social Entrepreneurship in Higher Education. London, [online].

UnLtd is the trading name for The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England. Registered No. 4180639. Registered Office 123 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JJ. Registered Charity No. 1090393