Leading on social enterprise

Friendly business team

We are determined to be the UK's leading university for social enterprise by 2015. Below are some of the ways in which we are leading on social enterprise:

  • Work placements in social enterprises - all our students are given the opportunity, as part of their degree, to work in a social enterprise; either one that we have set up, one that we support them to set up, or one already operating in the region
  • The integration of social enterprise with teaching, learning and research - through all our courses and research, we strive to build social enterprise competence and knowledge
  • Supporting student social entrepreneurs -  we provide support to students and staff in order to assist them to set up and operate sustainable social enterprises through programmes such as We Do Ideas and Big Ideas Bonanza
  • Evolution of University support functions to social enterprises - where possible, we are evolving existing university departments into social enterprise organisations, providing services to the University community on a commercial basis while also fulfilling a clear social purpose
  • Nationwide support for social enterprise - our Inspire2Enterprise service provides comprehensive customer focused and market-driven support to new and existing social entrepreneurs and enterprises
  • Using procurement power to support the social enterprise sector - our £1 billion University Challenge encourages the UK's higher education sector to spend at least £1bn on procuring goods and services with social enterprises in order to strengthen the social enterprise sector
  • Investment in social enterprises - we invest in social enterprises where we can identify a social enterprise that is trading, delivering exceptional social value, and where there are excellent opportunities for student placements and graduate employment
  • Delivery of social change initiatives - working with partners, we are developing socially enterprising ways of transforming the delivery of services in the critical areas of Justice, Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, and Information, Advice and Guidance
  • Influencing policy and practice - using our knowledge and experience, we are developing ways of influencing the policy and practice of social enterprise in the UK and beyond

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