Social Enterprise and Higher Education in a Globalized World

Social enterprise has become a global phenomenon, changing the lives of millions of people and addressing social issues that have previously been outside of the reach of governments or the private sector. Many higher education institutions have engaged with social enterprise in a variety of ways, including providing facilities to external social enterprises, supporting and advising student and faculty social enterprises, providing placements and internships for students in social enterprise organisations and embedding social enterprise directly into the curriculum. This chapter reviews the current relationship between higher education and the social enterprise phenomenon. While there is a growing body of research on the concept of social enterprise itself, there is a paucity of research on the pedagogical aspects of teaching and embedding social enterprise into the curriculum. From related literatures on curriculum design it is clear that a flexible, holistic approach is needed to embed experiential learning about social enterprise to produce learning environments that foster high levels of student engagement and enhanced employability.