Connecting Social Enterprise and Higher Education: Universities as drivers in the support of social enterprises in the United Kingdom

Despite the increased attention paid to enterprise and entrepreneurship education in recent years, there exist limited bodies of research on the extent to which higher education institutions support and promote social enterprises. This chapter addresses this by drawing on previous research concerning enterprise and entrepreneurship education in universities and their role as drivers in bringing social change and improvement in individuals and the wider society. This chapter provides many examples of social enterprise curricular and co-curricular programmes in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges of universities supporting social enterprise initiatives with a roadmap for future research directions