The University of

NottinghamENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR 2009

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Ian Robertson

VICE-CHANCELLOR, THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP (NCGE)

Professor David Greenaway

“An entrepreneurial university is characterised by strong leadership that develops entrepreneurial capacities for all students and staff across its campus; the delivery of entrepreneurial outcomes that deliver added value to people and organisations; innovative learning techniques that inspire entrepreneurial action; open boundaries to encourage effective flows of knowledge; multi-disciplinary approaches to education that mimic real-world experience and focus on solving complex world challenges; and the drive to promote the application of entrepreneurial thinking and leadership.

“Choosing a single successful university as the first Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial University of the Year was very difficult, but entrepreneurialism is a clear and visible part of Nottingham’s culture. A hard decision was eased by the breadth and depth of that entrepreneurial culture at the University, from senior management through to its staff and the student societies.”

“Entrepreneurialism has always been embedded long-term at this University, reaching back to the work we have done with Boots for over a century. What pleases me most about this award is the way it reflects how our students embrace the qualities of the entrepreneur.

“At this point in time, such approaches to life and work are particularly important. We have gone through an economic upheaval that happens perhaps once every 100 years. Part of how we react to this will be about individuals taking the initiative by being entrepreneurial. Higher education can contribute significantly to that sustainable future.”

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The Entrepreneurial UniversityThe University of Nottingham represents a new type of UK university which is highly entrepreneurial in its strategy, its curriculum, its approach to teaching and the subjects it teaches, its support for businesses and industry sectors nationally and internationally, and the entrepreneurial calibre of its students and graduates.

This booklet describes the characteristics that made Nottingham the first Entrepreneurial University of the Year.

The entrepreneurial university concept embraces universities of all types including those with a strong research tradition. Higher education is fundamental to the future of the UK. The relationship between industry and universities, what they produce, the new businesses created, the staff employed and the students and graduates that emerge from that environment are core ingredients to future UK competitiveness and social cohesion. The challenges of globalisation require an entrepreneurial response and UK higher education is well placed to respond to these challenges with its distinctive strengths of dynamism and adaptability allied to research and teaching excellence. The NCGE is the national body supporting our universities in these challenges with the aim of embedding a culture of entrepreneurship across higher education.

The NCGE

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1.The Institutional Environment“HOW AN INSTITUTION’S CULTURE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED TO PROVIDE ENVIRONMENTS FOR SUPPORTING STUDENT ENTERPRISE AND GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND HOW LEADERSHIP FOR DRIVING ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS DEMONSTRATED.”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION FOR ALL

EXTENDING ITS GLOBAL REACH

RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

The University of Nottingham exemplifies the ‘entrepreneurial university’ and was an ideal first winner of the Times Higher Education Award for Entrepreneurial University of the Year. Nottingham is action-oriented and makes things happen. Its staff identify opportunities and take the initiative to develop them. The University encourages and enables staff to show sufficient creativity and autonomy to generate innovation, and creates new ventures - such as campuses overseas building on long-standing connections in Asia - to meet its ambitions. All these key characteristics are vital in developing entrepreneurial UK universities.

Nottingham was one of the first UK universities to establish large-scale entrepreneurship education in the early 1980sand through the 1990s. First, a module on entrepreneurship was introduced to one course and then throughout its MBAs. For a decade, the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) has extended entrepreneurship across the University both in-curricula and through extra-curricular activities, including a highly active student enterprise society - Nottingham Entrepreneurs - and winning SIFE teams. All first year undergraduates can choose to study an entrepreneurship module.

In 2005, Nottingham opened full teaching and research campuses in China and Malaysia. The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, is the first Sino-Foreign University with approval from the Chinese Ministry of Education, with over 3,600 students and 250 staff.

The University of Nottingham’s world-class research often results in internationally significant discoveries that lead to technological breakthroughs. It is ranked number 7 in the Top Ten of UK universities ranked by ‘Research Power’. In its teaching and strategic development, The University of Nottingham adapts to global change and enjoys powerful historic links with business.

THE AWARD CRITERIA

Tradition and innovation: Nottingham combines academic excellence and experience with entrepreneurial development.

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2.Student Engagement“HOW STUDENTS AND GRADUATES APPLY THE ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOURS AND MINDSETS THEY LEARN FROM THEIR INSTITUTION’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP OFFERINGS AND WHETHER SUCH EXPERIENCES ENHANCE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A FUTURE CAREER CHOICE.”

AN ENTREPRENEURSHIP MODULE FOR ALL FIRST YEARS

STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS AND SIFE SUCCESSSTEADY GROWTH IN POPULARITY

POSTGRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMMES

“All first year undergraduates are offered the option to select Entrepreneurship and Business, a module where they learn about entrepreneurial creativity and invention,” says Professor Binks. “As well as attracting increasing numbers of students from across the University, this module is compulsory for Business students. By the end of their first semester, every Business School student will have been mentored in small groups through a creative problem-solving process by local entrepreneurs, inventing a solution to a chosen problem.”

The EnterpriseLab provides an environment in which students, graduates and staff learn about the practical aspects of business development, build entrepreneurial skills, explore their business ideas and network with others who have similar aspirations. Membership doubled in 2007-2008. With support from Entrepreneurship MBA Director Chris Mahon, University of Nottingham students were SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) National Champions in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Class sizes for Entrepreneurship and Business have been growing by 25 per cent year-on-year. Currently around 1,600 study this module in the UK, China and Malaysia and this figure is approaching 2,000. Other Schools have made or are considering making the module compulsory for first years.

The School’s MBA in Entrepreneurship ranks highly nationally and internationally. In addition, and alongside the flagship MSc Entrepreneurship course, there are 50:50 collaborative courses developed with other Schools such as: Chemistry and Entrepreneurship, Communication and Entrepreneurship, Computer Science and Entrepreneurship, Crop Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship, Cultural Studies and Entrepreneurship, Electronic & Electrical Engineering and Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Energy and Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial Nottingham students’ double win: Chris Skilton, social entrepreneur, won Socially Responsible Student of the Year, and Jonathan Francis won Entrepreneur of the Year in the Real World Awards 2008.

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3.Innovative and Entrepreneurial Staff“HOW INNOVATION AND GROWTH ARE DEMONSTRATED BY STAFF IN THE DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF AN INSTITUTION’S ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP OFFERINGS AND HOW STAFF ARE REWARDED AND INCENTIVISED FOR DEVELOPING EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE.”

The University of Nottingham’s highly developed infrastructure for supporting innovation, intellectual property management, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurial activity among its staff lets entrepreneurship happen.

The Ingenuity Gateway developed by UNIEI connects a growing network of academics, students, entrepreneurs, businesses, and public sector organisations to address ‘burning, real life, business questions’ by applying current teaching and research into complex business challenges. In 2008, a collaborative Ingenuity project with the Universities of Derby and Nottingham Trent gained £1 million from EMDA (the East Midlands Regional Development Agency) to assist SMEs.

There is also an active postgraduate and academic research focus in UNIEI and more widely throughout the Nottingham University Business School.

WORLD-LEADING RESEARCHERS

LINKING EXPERTISE TO BUSINESSES

INGENIOUS REAL-LIFE SOLUTIONS

As one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities, Nottingham attracted a record-breaking £130 million in research funding in 2007-2008. Following the most recent RAE results at the end of last year, 91 per cent of all researchers were submitted for assessment, and 90 per cent of all research at Nottingham was classified as of ‘international standard’ and 60 per cent as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

A new connection with Universitas 21 (U21) linking 14 universities worldwide will expand Nottingham’s collaborative engagement with researchers internationally, benefiting staff and research students.

The Research Innovation Services (RIS) team at Nottingham is a central gateway for businesses that are interested in identifying the ways in which working with the University can benefit them. The University was a launch partner in BioCity - Britain’s biggest biomedical business incubator - and runs one of longest running sector-specific entrepreneurship competitions, Biotechnology Yes, which was expanded in 2007-2008 to involve 318 postgraduates and postdocs, organised in 65 teams from 58 universities and seven institutes.

World-class research is partnered with a knowledge transfer and commercialisation infrastructure.

THE AWARD CRITERIA

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4.Entrepreneurial Impact“HOW AN INSTITUTION’S EFFORTS HAVE AFFECTED THE NATURE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL OUTCOMES FOR STAFF, STUDENTS AND GRADUATES; WHAT STEP-CHANGES HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED IN THE DELIVERY OF REGIONAL AND NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP GOALS; HOW THE INSTITUTION CAPTURED AND DEMONSTRATED GOOD PRACTICE AND EFFECTIVENESS; AND WAYS IN WHICH THE INSTITUTION’S EXPERIENCES INFLUENCED POLICY OR PRACTICE ELSEWHERE.”

University of Nottingham researchers and staff in many fields contribute significant innovations to the global marketplace and the University’s graduates make positive impacts worldwide. In order to develop and improve its approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship, UNIEI and other research centres have formed a high-profile team of senior academics and researchers from the UK, Europe, the United States and the Far East to research enterprise and innovation.

The University of Nottingham received The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2006 and The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2007. The University generates a significant amount of intellectual property and is active in transferring this knowledge to the global marketplace. It has launched award-winning spin-out companies including Molecular Profiles, Critical Pharmaceuticals, OncImmune, and Monica Healthcare.

As well as winning the first NCGE-Times Higher Education Award for ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’, Nottingham won praise from the regional business community with the Midlands Business Award for ‘Midlands Enterprising University of the Year’. It was praised for its ‘outstanding performance’ in the promotion of entrepreneurship among students, and commitment to entrepreneurial activity that has made the University a pioneer within UK higher education.

In June 2009, The University of Nottingham won the Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Award for its regeneration of a brown-field inner city site using cutting-edge sustainable design and construction principles for a £30 million expansion of its Jubilee Campus. This includes a University Innovation Park for spin-out enterprise and collaborative industrial projects and features ‘Aspire’, the tallest freestanding sculpture in the UK.

AWARD-WINNING ENTERPRISES VISIONARY ESTATES DEVELOPMENT

Midlands Business Awards: Dr Richard Masterman (RIS); William Barron; Prof

Martin Binks (UNIEI); Prof Chris Rudd, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Knowledge Transfer; Dr

Susan Huxtable, Director of IP and Commercialisation

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The University of Nottingham’s Entrepreneurial Vision“Our approach to teaching is new and integrative, involving live case studies and students developing their own business ideas with the support of local businesses and business mentors. Our students are also active in putting social entrepreneurship into practice in support of the local community,” says ProfessorLeigh Drake, Director of Nottingham University Business School.

For Martin Binks, Professor of Entrepreneurial Development at The University of Nottingham, “entrepreneurship has creative problem-solving and effective decision-making at its heart. If ever we need those skills to contribute to the health of our economy and society, it’s now!” Equipped with these attributes, graduates can make real impacts.

The University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) delivers one of Europe’s largest, most highly developed entrepreneurship education programmes. As well as directing the UNIEI, Martin is Deputy Director of Nottingham University Business School and Co-Director of the Centre for Integrative Learning.

Professor Chris Rudd, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Knowledge Transfer, and Professor Bob Webb, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research have recently launched The University of Nottingham’s Research and Knowledge Transfer Strategy. Entrepreneurship has a prominent place in it . Using the 2008 RAE results as a benchmark, one of the strategy’s nine key objectives is to develop a creative and entrepreneurial culture throughout the institution.

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The very first ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ was announced on 23rd October 2008, at the annual Times Higher Education Awards ceremony - often described as the ‘Oscars’ for UK higher education. This new category, sponsored by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), attracted an unprecedented number of entries and signalled just how important it has become for universities to be recognised as entrepreneurial. Entrants were assessed on

the extent to which their cultures foster entrepreneurship and deliver impact.

Presented as the penultimate Award of the evening - just before the prized Times Higher Education University of the Year accolade - the University of Nottingham gained the title from a shortlist of six, impressing in all areas.

Ian Robertson, NCGE CEO with Professor Martin Binks, Director of UNIEI, Nottingham’s Vice-Chancellor Professor David Greenaway, Charlotte Matthew and Reena Chandar of the winning SIFE team, and Melanie Duck of TSL.

Ann Mroz, Editor, Times Higher Education

“IN ITS INAUGURAL YEAR, I WAS DELIGHTED THAT THE ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR AWARD MANAGED TO ATTRACT A RECORD 34 ENTRANTS, WHICH REPRESENTED THE LARGEST NUMBER OF ENTRIES FOR A NEW TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION AWARD SINCE THEY WERE INTRODUCED IN 2005.

“WITH THE CONTINUED SUPPORT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, I HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT THIS AWARD WILL CONTINUE TO GROW FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH.”

The Entrepreneurial University of the Year

The Times Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award

TOPLINE JUDGING FACTORS FOR EACH CATEGORY:

KEY SELECTION CATEGORIES:

1.Institutional Environment2.Student Engagement3.Innovative and Entrepreneurial Faculty4.Entrepreneurial Impact

a. How has the university transformed its culture to provide conducive environments for supporting student enterprise and graduate entrepreneurship?

b. How is institutional leadership for driving enterprise and entrepreneurship throughout the institution demonstrated?

a. How are the students and graduates applying entrepreneurial behaviours and mindsets learnt from the institution’s entrepreneurship offerings?

b. What responses from students and graduates indicate an enhanced positive attitude towards enterprise and entrepreneurship as a career/life choice?

a. How have staff demonstrated innovation and growth in their approach to the design and delivery of the institution’s enterprise and entrepreneurship offerings?

b. How are staff rewarded and incentivised for developing excellence in practice?

a. How have the institution’s efforts affected the nature of entrepreneurial outcomes for staff, students and graduates?b. What step-change has been achieved in the delivery of regional and national entrepreneurship goals?c. How has the institution captured and demonstrated good practice and effectiveness?d. In what ways have the institution’s experiences influenced policy or practice elsewhere?

1. Institutional Environment

2. Student Engagement

3. Innovative and Entrepreneurial Staff

3. Entrepreneurial Impact

The NCGE

1. Leadership of Higher Education institutions through policy, research and the Entrepreneurial University Leadership Programme for future leaders.

2. Embedding entrepreneurship across campus and the curriculum through educator support including the IEEP (International Entrepreneurship Educators Programme) and Enterprise Champions in selected universities.

3. Flying Start is dedicated to supporting students and graduates (up to five years after graduation) enter self employment or start a business. Practical workshops, start up programmes, funding support, mentoring, an online support system and support for student enterprise societies are all part of Flying Start.

• Enhance the capacity for universities to engage and collaborate with business and industry;

• Support organisational change in universities, providing an entrepreneurial environment for all stakeholders;

• Ensure all students and graduates are provided with high quality enterprise and entrepreneurship education.

THE NCGE IS A NATIONAL BODY ESTABLISHED BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND FOCUSED ON EMBEDDING ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACROSS HIGHER EDUCATION. THE PRACTICAL NATURE OF THIS WORK IS VARIED:

UNIVERSITY ENTERPRISE NETWORKS (UENs) BUILD ON THESE FOUNDATIONS. THEY ARE PRIVATE SECTOR, PUBLIC SECTOR AND UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS TO:

NCGE ALSO HAS A LEADING GLOBAL POSITION, SUSTAINING FORMAL AGREEMENTS WITH THE CHINESE AND MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENTS, A CLOSE WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION (US) AND NUMEROUS OTHER INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE NCGE LEADS ON SEVERAL KEY EUROPEAN UNION BODIES AND INITIATIVES INCLUDING THE EXPERT GROUP IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

Written and produced by NCGE © 2009. For duplicate copies, please contact helen.williams@ncge.org.uk