Press Release

New £25k Award Launched to Encourage Innovation in Teaching of Enterprise in Higher Education

"The Centre for Enterprise has today launched a new financial award to encourage HE Institutions to develop an innovative approach to teaching enterprise and entrepreneurship. The 'Enterprise Teaching Award' of £25,000 from the Leicester-based organisation will be invested towards the successful applicant's costs of developing and piloting a ground-breaking teaching module.

The Centre for Enterprise believes that higher education is under-utilised as a national resource for stimulating an enterprising culture among undergraduate students who might be the Dyson's, Sugar's and Branson's of the future. It wants to see the introduction of teaching methods that shifts the focus away from functional disciplines towards adopting learning methods and materials that better reflect small businesses and the entrepreneurial environment.

Martin Henry, the Centre for Enterprise's chairman and chairman of Lastolite Ltd, said today: "Too often, teaching enterprise is regarded as a separate academic field of study or the preserve of the business school. The Centre for Enterprise hopes that its new Enterprise Teaching Award will encourage universities to embed enterprise teaching within mainstream courses. Higher education has a valuable role to play in fostering new enterprise and we believe that it can deliver a fresh approach."

Any Higher Institution in the UK can apply for the award. Applicants need to be able to demonstrate the importance of new approaches to teaching enterprise; the nature of student participation; the use of case studies and entrepreneurs as 'live' teaching material; and how any design shifts the focus away from the teaching of functional disciplines towards adopting learning methods and teaching materials that better reflect the environment of small businesses. The successful applicant will show an understanding of some of the risks in introducing innovation and how these will be met.

Applications have to be submitted by Friday, 14 September 2001. Application packs can be downloaded from www.centreforenterprise.co.uk/teachingaward ".

ENDS