Educating students in business

Feb 5 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE UK’s competitiveness “hinges on our ability to create business-ready graduates with entrepreneurial skills”.

So says founder and chairman of Cobra Beer, Lord Bilimoria, in the foreword to a recent report, which aims to put entrepreneurship at the centre of higher education.

He recalls, that when he was at university in the 1980s, business was something of a dirty word.

The situation has changed dramatically, he acknowledges, but there is still much to be done.

Preparing students for business involves Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) being in a position to offer students the entrepreneurship and business courses that they’re increasingly looking for and the report offers a framework to help.

It’s a well-informed framework, drawing on the experience of an international expert panel.

There was a regional presence on the panel in the person of Professor Allan Gibb, former chair and director of the Small Business Centre at Durham Business School and lead consultant to the NCGE on entrepreneurship education.

The report calls for co-ordinated action by all stakeholders – a wide range of individuals and organisations including vice- chancellors, local entrepreneurs, funding councils, government departments and third sector organisations.

It also calls for hands-on experience and techniques that can be applied in the real world, not just theory. And it gives students a chance to meet successful entrepreneurs. A good example is the Durham Business School’s Boardroom Activity. Part of the Business School’s MBA programme, it is designed to give students experience of life in the boardroom, with six or seven students chaired by an experienced company executive.

Universities are urged to “institute a systematic overhaul of academic disciplines” to embed entrepreneurship education in every subject.

Vice-chancellors, it argues, can provide visible leadership and should champion entrepreneurship across the campus.

Links with and input from entrepreneurs can help match the curricula to the needs of employers.

Business can offer academic and student placements and offer company projects as case studies.

Because it’s a two-way process – the UK needs to be able to retain talented graduates, not just produce them.

Stewart Watkins is managing director of County Durham Development Company, which is driving the development of NETPark