Students and Knowledge Exchange in University Business Services
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Students and knowledge exchange in university business services Dr Daniel Jackson, Dr Mike Molesworth and Graham Goode http://media.bournemouth.ac.uk For a printed copy of this report, please contact: Dr. Daniel Jackson T: 01202 961297 E: [email protected] June 2014 ISBN 978-1-910446-00-3 © Copyright CMC Publishing, Bournemouth University 1The authors would like to thank Prof Matthew Bennett of Bournemouth University for supporting this project, the students who helped collect data: Laura Bradley, Jasmin Dent, Sarah Loughlin, Emily Thorpe, Camilla Sanders; and colleagues who worked on the case studies: Dr Ana Adi and Dr Shelley Thompson. Executive summary There are many external exigencies and strong arguments We find different models of Student Enterprise Unit exist in favour of universities investing more in enterprise and with respect to their links to research and education. business engagement. This report is driven by these, Our audit and case studies suggest that by far the most but with a particular focus on the role of students and significant role for Student Enterprise Units is to support consultancy projects. We present: teaching by providing live briefs and assessed projects to students. This speaks to a model of student enterprise - An overview of how involved students are engaging activity that is closely tied to the curriculum, typically a in knowledge exchange through consultancy via a dissertation or final year project that is completed as comprehensive audit of all 164 UK HEI’s. a piece of consultancy. Where the activity is limited to student assessment, academic may staff have very little - Through four case studies (with a total of 32 interviews input to the project itself and may not have any contact and 3 focus groups), the key tensions, barriers and with business clients. motivations (both internal and external) in integrating students in consultancy in ways what benefit them, Another model of student enterprise involves greater academic staff, HEIs and external organisations. collaboration between staff and students, which often takes it away from assessed work. These SEU’s are - The implications for the management of such projects. more likely to be positioned and branded as a stand- alone agency, and may undertake business-critical work We find thatalmost every (96%, N=111) HEI that offers for clients who will pay based on a set fees structure. business services in the field of marketing, media and However, this model is a minority venture: only eight creative industries involves students in some way, with (14.5%) SEU’s were based around staff research and seven placements, internships and KTPs typically and routinely (12.7%) of 55 SEU’s involve collaboration between staff offered to businesses. and students. Our focus then becomes Student Enterprise Units (SEU), In our case studies we specifically asked participants where 46 UK HEIs have business consultancy services about their understanding of the benefits and tensions of that utilize students. We find that: student enterprise work. Benefits include: - In the main, SEU’s are reasonably small, have a modest - For students, enterprise seems to primarily add value to number of staff dedicated to them, and are not currently degree programmes by providing experiences that build a significant source of income for UK HEIs. However, student CVs and give them access to business networks there is an acceptance that this type of enterprise and potential employers. activity is not about profit for the HEI, but its value lies in enhancing the student experience. - When working collaboratively with staff there are even more benefits: students report that rather than feeling - What does seem consistent though is the need for that research and consultancy are remote, taking tutors dedicated staff to develop business contacts and to away from time with students, they see the activities work with tutors and students. as important and integrated. For staff, engaging in collaborative enterprise projects linked to their research - Projects vary in scope, but it seems clear that larger provides more opportunities for ‘impact’. SEUs (and therefore those that have the most impact on HEIs, their students, and external organisations) are - There is also good evidence from all the case studies likely to be centrally run rather than located in schools. that businesses, both regional and national, benefit greatly from student enterprise work and their feedback - Over 60% of Student Enterprise Units pay students in is overwhelmingly positive. some way, though in most cases there was no guarantee of student payment, no set prices offered to clients, and so arrangements were generally much more ad hoc than our figure suggests. 3 Tensions include: The key recommendations for those involved in student enterprise projects include: - Where activity is aligned with assessment, there are significant timing issues and some there are limitations 1. Ensure adequate resources on the projects that students can take on. 2. Senior management buy-in is therefore a key ingredient of successful SEUs. - The wider point here is that enterprise that is 3. To encourage staff buy-in to a project, communicate focussed on student needs, is potentially less useful for SEU’s internally, including their core aims. businesses. 4. Where the emphasis is on assessment, students are generally not paid for their work, however where - There are issues of cost. Many small business have students undertake optional consultancy, they should limited resources. The result is that there is demand for be paid above minimum wage. ‘free’ advice in the form of student projects and this is 5. Consider the restrictions of the academic calendar, an attraction for businesses of this form of knowledge though these can be overcome where the student exchange. enterprise is optional, paid and in collaboration with academic staff. - Managing the internal and external profile of SEUs can 6. Student Enterprise Units can be used for internal be a challenge. Our audit data reveals just how hard it is work. for external organisations to find SEUs, not least because 7. Student enterprise work provides meaningful even when calls are made, reception or business services educational experiences and this may be presented by staff don’t know of their existence. Here central support HEI as ‘added value’ for courses. services such as marketing and communications need to 8. Like any business services, SEUs need to be easily be aware of and support SEUs. found by external organisations. 9. There should be better accounting of student enterprise units. 10. HEIs should consider ways of integrating staff and student consultancy, as there are many benefits to such activities. 11. HEI’s should make sure that staff engagement in enterprise activities are sufficiently recognised and rewarded. 4 Contents page 1. Introduction page 7 2. Focus of this report page 9 3. Methodology page 10 4. Audit findings page 11 4.1 Student Enterprise Units page 12 4.2 The size, shape and age of Student Enterprise Units page 12 4.3 Incentives for student enterprise page 13 4.4 Links between enterprise, education and research: models of SEU page 13 4.5 The challenges of finding information about university business services page 15 5. Case studies page 17 5.1 Management and organisation of student enterprise page 17 5.2 Financial arrangements page 18 5.3 Integration with teaching and research page 19 5.4 Benefits of enterprise activity page 20 5.5 Tensions in enterprise activities page 21 6. Conclusions and Recommendations for HEIs page 22 Appendix A. Overview of Student Enterprise Units page 25 5 Glossary of terms CEB – Creative Enterprise Bureau (Bournemouth University) HEI – Higher Education Institution KTP – Knowledge Transfer Partnership KE – Knowledge Exchange PG – Postgraduate SEU – Student Enterprise Unit SMP – Student Media Project (University of Gloucestershire) UG – Undergraduate VM – Venture Matrix (Sheffield Hallam University) WBS Projects – Warwick Business School, University of Warwick 6 Introduction Enterprise is becoming a more important part of UK In this report we: Higher Education Institution (HEI) activity as a source of revenue, added value to students, and broader • Provide an overview of how involved students demonstration of the contribution of HEIs to the economy. are engaging in HEI knowledge exchange through For example, the recently published independent Witty consultancy Review (2013)1 - commissioned by the Department of • Discuss the different models of student consultancy Business, Innovation and Skills - lays down a challenge that exist to universities. It recommends that universities should • Assess the key tensions, barriers and motivations see enhancing economic growth as their ‘third (both internal and external) in integrating students in mission’ alongside teaching and research, and that consultancy in ways what benefit them, academic staff, the Government should invest £1billion over the next HEIs and external organisations Parliament in a fund for ‘Arrow Projects’ – for which • Consider the implications for the management of universities would bid to become ‘arrowheads’ leading such projects regional innovation projects. We are investigating an area of HE provision that is University business services and enterprise activity highly salient and of growing importance to the sector: will therefore be under greater scrutiny than before. business services that involve students. The rise in such Enterprise activity by HEIs may encompass a range of services is firstly underpinned by political and economic formal and informal activity from Knowledge Transfer exigencies, such as successive government agendas Partnerships (KTP) to academic consultancy, student seeking to better align the HE sector with business live briefs and placements. Despite this there is little community requirements (and to measure this through information on the overall provision of business services such mechanisms as ‘impact factors’), and the increasing by HEIs in the UK and even less on that which involves marketisation of HE, which brings pressures to: students engaging with consultancy (see Rae et al [2012]2 for a recent exception).