Academic support

About Enterprise and the Enterprise Team 

Enterprising thinking and skills are important for all students because they support personal and career success, whether that means starting a business or standing out in a competitive jobs market. 

The University aims that all students are enterprising and includes this capability in its Teaching and Learning Strategy and its Graduate Attributes Framework.  

The University also aims that students who are interested in starting a business, setting up as a freelancer, or who have a side project that might have enterprise potential are connected with the Enterprise Team and understand what support is available, such as 121 advice, start-up programmes, grants, events and workshops.  

The Enterprise Team has a Curriculum Lead for Enterprise Education who works across the University to support academic and support colleagues to understand and embed enterprise and to encourage students to join extra-curricular enterprise activities and programmes. 

There is a range of support available to staff including: 

Curriculum delivery: 

  • Awareness raising sessions where a member of the Enterprise Team can provide a brief introduction to Enterprise Support, enthuse students to get involved in extra-curricular events, workshops and programmes and signpost student entrepreneurs to enterprise support. 
  • Bootcamps on Tour, where enterprise support provision is tailored to meet the needs and interests of students and courses where freelance, self-employment and business start-up could be of interest before or after graduation. Sessions of up to three hours are timetabled into the curriculum and provided by Enterprise Team Business Advisors to introduce essential information and connect students with the team. 
  • A Curriculum Activities Framework, where the Enterprise Team can model - and staff can learn how to deliver – enterprise activities such as Pitch Club, methods for ideas generation and inclusive innovation challenges. These activities build students confidence, connections between peers and spark a sense of creative agency. Information about these activities can be found in the Employability and Enterprise SharePoint site. 

Staff development: 

  • Introductory sessions to gain confidence in: what enterprise and entrepreneurship education is; how enterprise relates to University goals and benefits students; what resources, case studies and practice exist to support the development of provision. 
  • Co-design consultations to support staff to enhance the student experience by integrating enterprise into modules and courses. 
  • Support developing teaching practice, such as a new Careers and Employability Service and Enterprise Team collaboration: Pedagogic Innovations for Graduate Attributes. This training introduces communication-rich teaching and learning and group interaction strategies to improve student confidence, agency and creativity. 

The University is also a member of professional organisations which promote, support and research enterprise and entrepreneurship: EEUK and ISBE.  

EEUK Membership:  

The University is a member of Enterprise Educators UK, which means that every member of staff is an associate and can access events and resources including the ETC toolkit which provides subject-related resources and inspiration relating enterprise to curriculum areas. EEUK hold numerous events, and some are free for associates to attend.   

In addition, staff can gain recognition for their excellent enterprise practice by pursuing an

Enterprise Fellowship with EEUK. Members of the Enterprise Team have achieved fellowship status and can support staff with their applications. 

ISBE Membership: 

The University is also a member of ISBE, the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. This means that staff can access benefits including events, an annual conference, the opportunity to apply to the RAKE research fund, and join various SIGs (Special Interest Groups).   

ISBE has an official journal – IJEBR – the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research. The editorial team of the journal often attend the ISBE conference and provide ‘Meet the Editors’ about submitting work.  

For more information about any aspect of the above work contact Catherine Brentnall at c.brentnall@hud.ac.uk