What on earth is a Changemaker campus?
The University of Northampton is the UK’s first Changemaker Campus. What does it mean for the University and its students? Tim Curtis of the University of Northampton gives his views.
The designation of the University of Northampton by AshokaU as a Changemaker Campus on 19th March could be seen as merely a glittery prize. Indeed, there are many prizes that universities chase that are just that – shiny trophies to decorate the Vice Chancellor’s office. However, for Northampton becoming a Changemaker Campus has not been a light-hearted walk in the park, rather it has been a strategic and deliberate endeavour, the reward of which is not the Changemaker Campus ‘badge’, but the transformation of the whole University and the development of a new and superior educational experience for our students.
AshokaU markets itself as the ‘most innovative and influential’ set of universities committed to social entrepreneurship and social change. There are only 22 AshokaU Changemaker Campus universities in the world, and only two in Europe (Northampton and Dublin City).
In 2010 the University of Northampton set itself the goal of becoming the No. 1 university for social enterprise in the UK by 2015. Five years is not a lot of time for a university to become number one in anything. We have made enormous efforts to live up to our own expectations and the AshokaU designation clearly demonstrates the seriousness of our commitment. There isn’t any league table of social enterprise Universities in the UK or in the world, and (in true academic style) we would argue for years about what features distinguish a ‘social enterprise university’ from any other university. We would argue for longer about what metrics could be used to prove who the best is. AshokaU, as an institution outside the UK and therefore independent of the UK league table obsession, is best placed to at least recognise the progress we have made in Northampton and our commitment to future change.
The AshokaU ‘accreditation’ process is based on the methodology it uses to select its 3,000 Fellows in 70 countries. It is not just about the activities that the students and staff of universities carry out, but about the orientation and mindset of leaders and team members. The process started in the UK with visits to Northampton by a team of assessors from AshokaU who interviewed first year students, the Vice Chancellor, and many people in between!
Having cleared that hurdle, we were then invited to send a team to the USA for a three day presentation of our case and lots and lots of questions. And we did well, feedback from the AshokaU panel was very, very positive. We feel justified in saying that we are the No. 1 University for social enterprise in the UK, and that we have achieved our goal two years ahead of target.
But, now comes the hard work, the real challenge of being a Changemaker Campus. ‘Becoming’ is easy – ‘being’ is the hard bit. The next steps for the University of Northampton are to embed and mainstream our social entrepreneurship initiative throughout an organisation that, like all UK universities, is primarily designed for teaching and research. The University can be slow to change, sometimes appear almost immovable, and a lot of the steps involved in embedding social enterprise will not be very interesting or exciting. Redrafting module specifications is not the stuff of award ceremonies.
Being a Changemaker Campus will involve not only being excellent at the rapid delivery of new initiatives and projects and the development of new social enterprises, but also the more slow burn and less tangible world of the student experience. I am driven by the idea that the most important impact that this University has, and will have, on society is not going to be just in the numbers of social enterprises we creates or sponsors. Instead, the social impact of the University of Northampton will be the entrepreneurial and socially just decisions its graduates make throughout their whole careers.
What we need to work on is allowing the students to see alternatives to the way the world is currently run, to help them see social problems and business based solutions, and to ensure they have the ability and drive to make changes. Our next challenge is to ensure that everyone is a Changemaker!