Vibrant new home for centre of enterprise
Posted on 27 January 2011
The Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise (CETLE) will now be based in the Ron Cooke Hub building which sits at the heart of the £750m University campus expansion at Heslington East.
The outstanding facilities offered by the York Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise provide students and staff alike with the space to be creative, enterprising and productive
Professor Brian Cantor
And to mark the move, the University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor will officially welcome CETLE to its new home at a special event on Thursday, January 27 at 6pm. The opening, which will include a University of York Business Plan Competition and tours of the new facilities, will be attended by 120 guests from the University and wider York business community.
CETLE was established as a White Rose initiative between the Universities of York, Sheffield and Leeds in 2005, and at York hosts a micro-incubator in which students can start and base their own businesses. CETLE provides small grants to promising business concepts and thanks to its support, a number of former York students have gone on to run their own successful businesses.
The centre, which was previously based in Vanbrugh College, also supports academic staff in designing and teaching enterprise related curriculum in their areas. Enterprise modules are now delivered as part of the core curriculum of English Literature, Philosophy and Social Policy as well as in Science and Technology subjects.
Professor Brian Cantor said: “The outstanding facilities offered by the York Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise provide students and staff alike with the space to be creative, enterprising and productive. Enterprise is vital to the future of the University, helping us to develop innovative teaching and research, and fostering good relations with our key business partners in the city, the country and worldwide.”
CETLE’s new home, the Ron Cooke Hub, is one of the flagship buildings on the Heslington East campus expansion which has been built with a combination of public and private funding, including support from the European Regional Development Fund. The Hub houses an integrated network of support for start-up businesses and is part of the University’s pioneering concept, already established on York Science Park, of linking businesses to research centres on an academic campus.
Sharing the same space as CETLE will be a Creative Technologies Centre, a new initiative designed to provide training in new technologies.
Tony Ward, Director of CETLE, said: “We are extremely pleased to be moving to the Ron Cooke Hub which is right at the heart of the enterprise focus of the University. We are particularly looking forward to working alongside the Creative Technologies Centre to help more academic departments and staff engage with the enterprise agenda. The new micro-incubator in the Hub will help even more students realise their enterprise dreams.”
CETLE acts as sponsor and base for York Entrepreneurs, a student led enterprise club. With approximately 1,400 members it is the University’s largest society on campus and was the winner of the 2009 International Enterprise Educators Award for student led initiatives.
Julie Meyer, Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital, a leading champion for entrepreneurship in Europe, will deliver the event’s keynote speech. Guests at the event include academics from institutions across the region and representatives from York’s wider business community including Yorkshire Forward, Science City York, Higher York, York Professionals and Make York, an organisation representing young professionals.
Julie Meyer, a dragon on BBC’s Online Dragons’ Den, will also quiz three student contestants in a University of York Business Plan Competition. The other panel member will be Stuart Barton, a Partner with Ernst Young. The audience will vote anonymously using an electronic voting system with the winner receiving a prize of £500 and a day at Ariadne Capital.
Notes to editors:
- For more information on the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Enterprise visit www.york.ac.uk/enterprise/cetle
Contact details
Keep up to date
Subscribe to news feeds
