Advancing Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship through Postgraduate Education in East Africa / ADVANCE
Programme: Erasmus+
Key action: Capacity Building in higher education
Start date: November 1, 2024
End date: October 31, 2027
Duration: 36 months
Coordinator: University of National and World Economy, Bulgaria
Partners:
- Vilniaus Kolegija, Lithuania
- Universita Degli Studi del Sannio, Italy
- Tetra Solutions Ltd., Bulgaria
- Lira University, Uganda
- Busitema University, Uganda
- Facilitation for Peace and Development, Uganda
- Mkwawa University College of Education, Tanzania
- Mzumbe University, Tanzania
- Small Industries Development Organization, Tanzania
Objectives:
The overall objective of our project is to enhance social innovation and entrepreneurship in Uganda and Tanzania by developing and implementing a new competence-based Post-Graduate Diploma programme in four partner universities in Uganda and Tanzania, in cooperation with local stakeholders and based on the methodologies of service-learning and experiential learning.
The specific objectives are to:
- Improve understanding of knowledge, skills and attitudes of a social entrepreneur in Uganda and Tanzania
- Develop a new post-graduate curriculum and learning content in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIE) in cooperation with local stakeholders in Uganda and Tanzania
- Develop and implement in African partner universities a quality management system, which guarantees effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the new programme
- Build capacity of academic staff to deliver the new programme using innovative teaching methodologies, and SIE mentors to support students’ service learning and experiential learning
- Create physical and virtual environment conducive to the implementation of the new programme in face-to-face, blended and online modes and pilot the programme in all African partner universities
- Raise awareness of SIE and provide access to high quality open educational resources in the field of SIE to local stakeholders in the Uganda and Tanzania
Key results:
- Competence profile of a social entrepreneur
- Model post-graduate curriculum in SIE of 30 ECTS (6 modules of 5 ECTS) and 4 curricula adjusted to the context of each African partner HEI
- Learning materials for all modules of the new programme, incl. video lectures and video case studies
- Quality Management System for the new programme
- Capacity-building workshops for academic staff and SIE mentors in the methodology and content of the new programme
- Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in each African partner university
- Open online learning platform for the new programme
- Large-scale awareness-raising campaigns and dissemination conferences
Target groups:
- African higher education institutions interested in expanding their education offer by a new post-graduate programme in SIE.
- Members of university academic councils, curriculum committees and quality assurance committees, academic and administrative staff involved in the development and implementation of the new programme.
- Prospective students interested in the new programme in SIE (i.e. undergraduate and post-graduate students at African HEIs, alumni, aspiring and active (social) entrepreneurs).
- Representatives of local authorities, other universities, business development organizations, NGOs, community organizations, social entrepreneurs, and grassroots innovators, who can get involved in the implementation of the new programme as mentors.
Project website: www.advance-sei.eu