FEATURE

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News & Current Affairs
The University of Northampton is to imbed social enterprise into its corporate strategy. University Business questions Vice Chancellor, Nick Petford, on the new direction

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Professor Simon Denny, Wray Urwin and Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society

Flagship. Enterprise.
As the wider world alternately surrenders to or embraces globalism, universities too have fallen in with this trend, partnering with institutions abroad, looking across the pond for effective working models and recruiting ever-increasing numbers of students from overseas. But in the rush to get connected with the wider world, universities could be accused of neglecting their own back yard. Step forward the University of Northampton, who are championing the UKs first county-wide scheme to bring together social enterprises, private and public sector, higher education and the voluntary and community sector, with a view to benefiting both the student and the surrounding area. The inSpirE initiative, launched at the House of Lords on June 13, pledges to give all students the oppor-

tunity to become involved in a prosocial, real-world business, be that by working within an existing enterprise or creating their own, with the aim of increasing their employability whilst assisting the wider community. If successful, the scheme will see them become the UKs leading university for social enterprise. There have been some challenges accurately conveying what the term social enterprise means, as ViceChancellor Nick Petford explains: Its funny. Its a couple of words that mean different things to different people. Theres this notion that somehow its volunteering, which it is; something to do with third sector, which it is, but its also got a lot to do with profit and I think communicat-

If you go half-hearted into a social enterprise you will absolutely fail

ing that is the challenge. I think that talking about what social enterprise means to a variety of different local audiences the NHS trust and the primary care trust, local councils and businesses is one way to get the message across. The other way of course is to get the message across to students and the way we demonstrate that is through the employability agenda, and that will be imbedded in our curriculum. So if you attend this University you have the opportunity to study a module in social entrepreneurship. That will be a really important aspect in terms of raising awareness. Petford, who joined The University of Northampton as vice chancellor in September 2010, took a non-traditional route into higher education, leaving school at 16 and training as a refrigeration engineer. After spending a few years in retail he returned to education, attending Goldsmiths University to study Geology in 1984. Post-degree, he was offered an opportunity to take on a PhD project at the University of Liverpool working in Peru, and in 1990 received a prestigious Royal Society University

Research Fellowship, which enabled him to immerse himself in academic research for a further five years. A lecturer placement at Kingston University followed, as well as a stint at Bournemouth University as Pro Vice Chancellor of Research and Enterprise. Within this time he has also continued his flirtation with industry, working with BP in marketing and human resources on some major projects. He has experience of working on social enterprise schemes before, on a project in Nigeria to set up some factories in the area manufacturing mosquito nets, to allow the community to benefit from the profits. To lead in social enterprising you have to be really resilient, he comments. You have to be really impassioned about how you are going to take it forward. If you go into it half-hearted, you might survive in a more commercial environment through good luck or good financial planning, but if you go half-hearted into a social enterprise you will absolutely fail. Petford is certainly embracing the prospect, as attested by his revelation that he himself will be teaching on the social enterprise model a highly unusual move for a member of senior management. Ive often asked myself why VCs dont get more engaged, he muses. If you really want to

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To read the full interview with Nick visit www.universitybusiness.co.uk

Key Threads of the Social Enterprise Scheme

Work Placements in Social Enterprises All students will be able to take part in work placements with existing or start-up social enterprises.

the new strategy is hugely important in presenting the value of HE Nicola Dandridge

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Volunteering The University operates a co-ordinated volunteering service throughout the county and delivered 800,000 worth of volunteering to social enterprises and charities in 2010. inSpirE This joint initiative brings together social enterprises, private and public sector, higher education, and the voluntary and community sector to increase the professionalism and effectiveness of social enterprises. Social Entrepreneur in Residence In partnership with the Young Foundation, the University has employed the UKs first higher education Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Ray Irwin. Social Enterprise in Action The Universitys current social enterprises include 3e, a social recruitment company, We Re PC, which re-cycles PC hardware, Northamptonshire Voluntary Youth Action, an enterprise that helps young people find voluntary work and HomeworkHub, which helps parents help their children with schoolwork.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine and Nicola Dandridge, CEO UUK

walk the walk with the student experience, you should be out there being judged by students. Petford sounds passionate about what is undoubtedly an admirable scheme, but does it not ring slightly of David Camerons Big Society? Petford jumps in to debunk speculation. This isnt a political decision, he says firmly. Whatever party is in power in the future, there will always be a need for people to develop and work in social enterprises. They existed before the big society and they will exist well after. Making it clear that we are not trying to promote any political agenda is really important. The truth is, the timing is finally right for Northampton to start making its mark. At seven years old, the University is something of a spring chicken in terms of HEIs. While Petfords predecessor Ann Tate was faced with the challenge of transforming a college into a fully-fledged university, Petford sees his role as rather different. My predecessor

and the colleagues that she worked with did a fantastic job of getting the University to where it needed to be to be a university. But that phase is now completed. Somebody said to me the other day that now we are a university, our next step is to graduate. My job now is to ensure we do graduate into a really substantial, impactful organisation. For Petford, the institutions youth equate in no way to inferiority. Indeed, in an uncertain educational epoch, Petford sees the fleet-footed agility that comes of a smaller, younger university as one of its strengths. One of the advantages of this particular University is its youthfulness. Our cement is still wet and, therefore, we are still flexible enough to change and be able to respond to change much more quickly than perhaps some of the other universities that have been around a lot longer and are a bit more set in their ways. Also our size 14,000 students is a sort of middle ranking; we are not too big and not

too small, just about right in terms of a change management programme that can work within economical time frames. The timing is also right for the institution financially, as the VC acknowledges: We are in a strong financial position at the moment. Weve managed to diversify our income in the last five years, we have increased our income significantly whilst keeping staff costs down. Being in a strong financial position is good because it gives you the confidence to take more risk than you would do otherwise. This notion of risk is important to us at board level and at executive level and we are actually defining what we mean by acceptable risk at the University and we are going to err on the side of riskiness. We are not going to be risk seeking but we are going to move away from being relatively risk averse. Interestingly, it could perhaps be argued that the scheme might be seen as slightly old-fashioned, with its

community mindedness and deemphasis on technology. But Petford thinks the winds of change are blowing. I think there is a change going on in the sector, perhaps moving away from the early 2000s model of the science park and the notion of innovation, and commercialisation around high-tech and widgets and IP protection. A lot of technology transfer offices were set up across the UKs universities, often funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund, and if you think about whether that money was well spent, there is a bit of a question mark over that. What we are seeing now with the cuts is that some of the tech transfer offices are being shut down or downsized. The scheme is certainly pioneering; a brave step for the fledgling institution that will put it on the map. It will be fascinating to see if the University of Northampton can champion pro-social businesses and draw higher education institutions into the heart of the local community.