The Role of an Entrepreneurial Learning Team in Creating an Enterprise Culture in a University

Objectives: The ‘entrepreneurial university’ is cited as a desirable and achievable goal: but it raises the question of how universities become entrepreneurial? The role of the enterprising academic in stimulating cultural change is often overlooked. This article presents as a case study the teaching team at the University of Derby who ‘acted as entrepreneurs’ over a five year period to stimulate enterprising learning across the university, and it promotes insights on cultural change within a modern regional university. It explores three questions: 1. How can a university develop an entrepreneurial culture? 2. How can entrepreneurial teachers stimulate cultural change? 3. Are there general learning points from the experience of the University of Derby? Prior Work: There has been extensive writing on enterprise education, with more limited examination of the ‘entrepreneurial university’. This prior work is advanced by exploring the roles of entrepreneurship teachers as change agents in the university. Approach: The process of developing an enterprising culture within a university is examined by tracing the organisational, pedagogical, systemic and behavioural changes and conflicts which arose in the case of the University of Derby. The learning experiences of the teaching team as reflective practitioners are shown using narrative accounts together with feedback from internal and external actors. The case uses action learning, featuring ‘critical incidents’, and ‘practical theories’ from the change process. Data from Science Enterprise Challenge (SEC) and Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) activities illustrate the growth in enterprise activity. Results: The case traces the impact on an HE institution of five years of significant growth in enterprise learning from a zero base. This includes the development of an enterprise curriculum; innovative learning methods; funded projects for student and community entrepreneurship; practice-based research; and the formation of networks of educators, practitioners and influencers. It concludes with the landmark achievement of the ‘Energising Enterprise Education’ (3Es) staff development event for the team and the university. Implications: The practice-based approaches illustrate for educators the development of an entrepreneurial teaching team and its values, skills and methods as crucial factors in the cultural change process which made a significant impact on the university in which conflict with the ‘base culture’ is inevitable but can provide useful insights. Value: The paper contributes new insights on the ‘entrepreneurial university’ and examines issues of sponsorship, leadership, followership, timescales, sustainability, limitations and constraints for entrepreneurial teams within enterprising universities.

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