Embedding creative problem solving and design thinking in entrepreneruship education
The University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) was established in 2000 and is based at Nottingham University Business School. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research and practical support for staff and student enterprise as well as local business engagement under the banner of the EMDA-sponsored Ingenuity Programme.
Multi-disciplinary teaching and learning
The longest-standing example of multi-disciplinary teaching and learning in this study, the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation was cited in the Cox Review as an example of university and SME interaction. UNIEI offers a programme of one-year multi-disciplinary taught Masters courses, which link creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation with other disciplines and schools within the university.
The first of these courses was the MSc Entrepreneurship Science and Technology, which was set up in 1999 with five years of funding from the Office of Science and Technology. In 2005 UNIEI began working with the School of Chemistry to develop a course that would provide advanced technical skills in chemistry and develop advanced entrepreneurial creativity, the MSc Chemistry and Entrepreneurship. Since then UNIEI has gone on to develop Masters courses that link entrepreneurship with electronic and electrical engineering, molecular medical microbiology, food production management, crop biotechnology, sustainable energy, computer science, cultural studies, and communication.
Students spend half their time in their discipline’s department and half with UNIEI, where they complete modules on creative problem solving, innovation management and marketing for entrepreneurship as well as finance and accounting and project management. UNIEI functions as a hub, bringing all students on the Entrepreneurship MScs together. Students spend time working in multi-disciplinary teams, on live business projects and with mentors from the local business community.
UNIEI also works with undergraduate students. A semester-long Entrepreneurship and Business module based around the application of a three stage creative problem solving process designed to encourage early stage or Pre-Concept Innovation. This module is taken by all 850 first year Nottingham Business School students in the UK as well as 700 in China and 300 in Malaysia. It can also be taken as an elective by second year Business School students and other students from schools across the university.
Taught Masters courses at the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation, based in at Nottingham University Business School, link creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation with other disciplines and schools within the university.
Nottingham has pioneered entrepreneurship teaching and research (it was named the UK’s first Entrepreneurial University of the Year by the Times Higher in 2008) and it is in this area that elements of design practice and design thinking are being embedded, with the integration of design practices within entrepreneurship modules studied by students from multi-discipline backgrounds.9 Dr Andrew Greenman, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Creativity is researching how these design practices – which include prototyping, brainstorming, problem mapping, crits and post-mortems and reflective practice – might have relevance for the development of entrepreneurship education, with particular reference to encouraging entrepreneurial imagination.
Globally, it is recognised that creativity, innovation, risk, knowledge transfer and technology transfer are key to competitivenessUniversity of Nottingham mission statement
Research
There also four designers among the 18 PhD candidates at the Horizon research institute at Nottingham University (a £40m investment by Research Councils UK engaged in research into the digital economy and ubiquitous computing). At the inter-disciplinary Doctoral Training Centre the PhD researchers work in a four-year programme that combines taught elements, including Innovation and Technology Transfer, with industry engagement and practice-led research.
Student enterprise and business engagement
The use of mentors on undergraduate and postgraduate courses means UNIEI has developed a network of more than 60 local businesses and entrepreneurs. It also runs Enterpriselab, which provides support for students, graduates and staff who want to develop business ideas through business surgeries covering finance, marketing, intellectual property, taxation, legislation and funding, and help with business planning.
UNIEI also delivers training in creative problem solving under the banner of the Ingenuity Programme, a three-year East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) funded project which connects small and medium-sized businesses in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Derby. Its ‘Ingenuity in Practice’ methodology is offered to decision makers at all levels from public sector bodies to SMEs.
Students at UNIEI working on modules that include creative problem solving and innovation management