Coventry University is to further boost its award-winning work in enterprise and entrepreneurship with the launch of its new International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE).
Building on recent accolades – including the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and being named Entrepreneurial University of the Year – ICTE will support communities, as well as staff and students, to transform their local areas and contribute to sustainable social and economic growth.
ICTE will continue to build on the successful foundation of the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship (IAE) – which has merged into the new centre – and will focus on teaching and research activities while pioneering fresh ways of doing business for the 21st century.
The centre’s academic programmes and modules will focus on knowledge transfer, and are fronted by two flagship undergraduate and postgraduate courses – the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship BA (Hons) and a master’s degree in Global Entrepreneurship.
Research activities will be centred around building knowledge, with a particular focus on how to apply that knowledge and use it to impact on policy development. The centre is also in the process of implementing a doctorate programme for those interested in systemic and transformational entrepreneurship.
Through both the teaching and research dimensions of the centre, the aim is to support local and international communities, help them to revisit existing entrepreneurial practices, and develop new entrepreneurship instruments and systems where needed.
Professor Gideon Maas, the director of ICTE, said:
Finding answers for renewed socio-economic growth in the current global landscape seems to be a daunting task. Re-thinking the way entrepreneurship is promoted is therefore called for and the focus of this drive is through transformational entrepreneurship. Through transformational entrepreneurship, a broader holistic and heuristic approach can be achieved leading to improved policy formulation promoting sustainable socio-economic growth.
Professor John Latham, vice-chancellor and CEO of Coventry University, said:
At Coventry University we are truly engaged with business and the wider community. Through transformational enterprise and entrepreneurship, which is embedded in our teaching and research, we aim to address global and societal challenges. Through its activities, ICTE will strive to address systemic challenges, making sure that we approach them in an innovative and sustainable way.
ICTE strengthens Coventry’s mission statement that focuses on being dynamic, global and transformational. The centre will work alongside the University’s existing research and teaching initiatives, while linking with partner institutions locally and internationally.