Key Themes

NCGE’s research vision is embedded within the conceptual framework that drives our bibliographical database. This creates an intuitive process for searching and identifying key articles.

The four themes are:

Theme 1:      Illuminating the Graduate Entrepreneurship Landscape

Purpose: To provide a comprehensive picture of the scale and scope of activity, quantitatively and qualitatively, at national, regional and local levels from a supply and demand perspective

Illustrative Actions:

• Establish the UK intelligence source for Graduate Entrepreneurship;
• Collate and developed national survey data;
• Provide an online searchable bibliographic database;
• Co-ordinate a national research programme;
• Commission and partner research and development projects;
• Build a graduate entrepreneurship research community.
  

Theme 2:      Assessing the Impact of Graduate Entrepreneurship

Purpose: To understand the nature and effect of graduate entrepreneurship within different contexts and to develop approaches for assessing its impact

Illustrative Actions:        

• Partner comparative, evaluative and longitudinal studies on the effects on individuals, organisations, business and communities to establish an evidence base. 
• NCGE has commissioned the Institute for Entrepreneurship at Southampton University to undertake a longitudinal analysis of 10yr alumni data. 
• NCGE has worked with the Council for Industry and Higher Education and other UK and international partners and established an international comparative study of good practice in entrepreneurship development.

You can find out more information in our Research Reports section.

Theme 3:      Understanding the Journey from Student to Entrepreneur

Purpose: To explore the transition process from student to entrepreneur, and identify the triggers and barriers and influences on the path to 'entrepreneur-readiness'

Illustrative Actions:

• Clarified the critical stages in the process;
• Developed approaches to addressing inhibiters and enhancers, e.g. student debt;
• Promoting approaches and innovations that work.
• Leeds Metropolitan University and Derby University have conducted studies into entrepreneurial career choices and career decision-making;
• FreshMinds have explored the knowledge base on entrepreneurship and debt; Barclays Bank have surveyed the attitudes of young people toward debt and entrepreneurship;
• Newcastle University is exploring the management of student IP.
  

      You can find out more information in our Research Reports section.  

Theme 4:      Building Institutional Capacity and Professional Capability

Purpose: To provide a focus on the role of institutional and organisational policies, environments, cultures and practices; and, educator/adviser capabilities, behaviours, mindsets and actions

Illustrative Actions:

• Encourage the development of conditions conducive to entrepreneurial aspirations and actions;
• Stimulating thinking and development in curricula;
• Supporting a community of entrepreneurship educators.
• NCGE has commissioned a series of policy discussion papers to highlight the key issues in developing entrepreneurship opportunities within higher education.
• NCGE is exploring with national providers the need for the development of a national entrepreneurship educators programme of support;
• NCGE is supporting the Higher Education Academy to capture and disseminate the learning from its Subject Centre pilots embedding entrepreneurship into the curriculum.
• NCGE is exploring with national bodies the development of key principles for support graduate entrepreneurship;
• NCGE has worked with the WDA on the evaluation of its entrepreneurship champions initiative to identify good practice.
• NCGE has worked with NESTA to identify good practice within the creative industries.

Further information about the themes and search opportunities can be found in the Bibliographical Database Search section of this site.