Enterprise in Law

How do we encourage students to be enterprising? What in fact do we mean by being enterprising? During 2005-06 UKCLE received support from the Higher Education Academy to work with law schools to encourage entrepreneurship amongst undergraduates, as part of Academy work on enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The Academy’s programme aimed to:

…facilitate the development of the undergraduate curriculum by putting in place the background information and materials needed to equip universities to teach the skills required to start and grow a business and contribute effectively to an organisation.

Definitions of enterprise and entrepreneurship are numerous. The Academy’s programme included:

• enterprise – spotting opportunities, creating new ideas and having the confidence and capabilities to turn these ideas into working realities
• entrepreneurship – using enterprise to create new business, new businesses and ‘can-do’ organisations and services
• social entrepreneurship – using entrepreneurial skills for the public good rather than for private profit

UKCLE’s Enterprise in Law project focused on the notion of enterprise and the different approaches law students can take to their learning to make them more enterprising. We worked with two law schools, the University of Glamorgan and Middlesex University, to develop and pilot a range of materials for teaching enterprise skills.

The modules/subject areas chosen were:

• Skills and Career Management (Glamorgan) – included a careers session raising awareness of entrepreneurial skills in legal environments
• Law and Society (Glamorgan) – students looked at the concepts of enterprise, entrepreneurship and the ethical entrepreneur, and their importance for the economy, society and the law graduate
• EC Law and the Free Movement of Goods (Middlesex) – read the project overview or download the materials

The project concluded with an event Celebrating enterprise in law.

Last Modified: 6 July 2010