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to buy from. There is even a Social Enterprise Day now, which is held annually on the third Thursday in November as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week with the aim of raising awareness of social enterprises and encouraging people to shop from these organisations. Interestingly, social enterprises have also been found to be very resilient. A December 2020 British Council report suggests they outperformed regular businesses during Covid-19, with only one per cent worldwide closing permanently as a result of the pandemic’s impact. This is perhaps, in part, because social enterprise founders often have direct experience of the problem they are dealing with, which gives them an edge, and because of their ability to pivot, with half of social enterprises in the report moving services online quickly, for example. Why are students so interested? At universities, there is interest in social enterprise around the campus among those studying all subject areas, from science to humanities students. At a local level, students are arriving at university and seeing opportunities for themselves in their adopted university towns. One of the classical ways of solving problems is to bring in an effective solution from elsewhere. With the diverse international community that a university attracts, this increases the chance of finding the right outcome. In Manchester, for example, students have identified issues such as plastic waste, homelessness, dietary issues among ethnic minorities, rehabilitation of former prisoners and employability skills for young people. Covid was a time when these problems were magnified and many people wanted to help. With an increasing spotlight on mental health in the wake of Covid lockdowns, there were also many who reassessed their lives. Lots of social problems are simply not being addressed as well as they might be due to budget cuts by local/national governments, while increased publicity from organisations such as the UN has contributed to interest. The UN Sustainable
ocial enterprise has become increasingly prominent in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change, covering a vast range of issues that affect the whole planet. So how can schools best help students with interest in such areas? And what can the university hope to gain from these activities? Increased interest in social enterprise In the UK, Social Enterprise UK suggests that there are more than 100,000 social enterprises contributing £60 billion to GDP. Worldwide, it is estimated there could be more than 11 million. While social enterprises do aim to generate a profit, they are set up primarily to create social value – bringing entrepreneurial skills to address a social or environmental problem important to the community. Data suggests that social enterprises are also very diverse, with these businesses more likely to be led by women or those of minority background than a regular business. They tackle a variety of issues including homelessness, education, inequality and environmental problems. The Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless people), Migrateful (which provides cookery classes run by refugees) and Homes for Good (a home lettings service) are well-known examples in the UK. Meanwhile, Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Bangladesh- based social enterprise Grameen Bank won a Nobel Peace Prize for providing debt funding to entrepreneurs who would be too poor to qualify for traditional sources of bank funding. Having a social mission doesn’t mean that social enterprises can’t use innovative technology – Netherlands-based organisation The Ocean Cleanup, for example, aims to use its technology to capture plastic waste from the Pacific Ocean so that it can be recycled. Since Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, first brought the term ‘social entrepreneur’ to the public’s attention in 1981, it has become mainstream, with entrepreneurs wanting to do good and customers actively seeking social enterprises
Students worldwide are showing an increased interest in learning about social enterprise, reflecting what they are seeing in the world
40 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
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