ISBE Organisational members The University of Derby and the University of Birmingham have been awarded one of the 2026-27 EEUK research impact fund bids. The aim is to investigate the impact of activity on learning of ‘more academic’ and ‘less academic’ students within enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE), and how this links to the ‘about’, ‘for’ and ‘through’ EEE approaches which are commonly used within the sector. Although there is a general movement towards a more active and constructivist pedagogy within EEE, there is not a common measure in use across the sector to demonstrate that this is beneficial to learning. Additionally, there also appears to be little underpinning evidence for the categorisation of EEE as ‘about’, ‘for’ and ‘through’, and how this links in with the activity and learning of these two types of students. This research aims to address both these issues.
Dr Kelly Smith and Dr Vic Curtis are looking for some volunteer EEE module leaders who would be willing (i) to ask their students to take three questionnaires during this academic year at the start, middle and end of their EEE module regarding the students’ approaches to learning and level of activity, (ii) to fill in a template about how their module may align to the ‘about’, ‘for’ and ‘through’ structure and (iii) to answer a few questions about the design of their modules during a short interview.
The questionnaires would be through a link or QR code to an MS Form which would be sent to you and all the data would be held securely at the University of Derby. An ethics application is currently underway to cover the research. Student participants would have the opportunity to put themselves forwards for a prize draw, to help encourage participation.
In return, the module leaders can ask for a summary of the anonymised data for their own module and an acknowledgment in any resulting paper. Additionally, a £50 Amazon voucher or £50 donation to a nominated charity is offered as a thank you.
We are looking for EEE modules which earn credit at FHEQ Level 4 through to Level 7 (including apprenticeship degrees) and which ideally have a minimum of 25 students. This is to try and maximise the number of responses across all the modules, and so depending on number of modules, some with less than 25 may also be possible. The modules can run in either the Autumn, Spring or Summer trimesters (or through more than one trimester), can be from a couple of weeks to year-through and can be from within or outside the Business School.
If you would like to participate or suggest someone who might like to participate, please email Dr Vic Curtis at V.******@******ac.uk for a further discussion.