As we highlighted in our first case study collection in 2022, Adding value through enterprise and entrepreneurship education in higher education, there has been a significant growth in enterprise and entrepreneurship education within the UK higher education (HE) sector in over the last 20 years.
The UK national government and European Commission have invested in entrepreneurship education as a way of fostering entrepreneurial activity which will generate economic value. Students have also identified enterprise and entrepreneurship education as a way of supporting the journey into self-employment, as well as developing commercial awareness and other ‘soft skills’ required by employers (The British Academy, 2017). A number of business surveys also highlighted that small businesses are facing a management and leadership shortage, and larger businesses have a need for employees who are orientated to the development of new business initiatives and ventures as a way of supporting business improvement and competitiveness.
While the growth in enterprise and entrepreneurship education has led to increasing diversity in provision, there remains a number of challenges to embedding enterprise and entrepreneurship in education in disciplines beyond the domain of business and management. These challenges relate not only to the language of enterprise and entrepreneurship but also perceptions of staff and students as to its perceived value, extent and nature of relationships with external stakeholders.
