Plymouth experts lead conference in South Africa

Experts from Plymouth University are in South Africa this week to lead a conference examining how a focus on systemic entrepreneurship could potentially transform the lives of people in Africa.

Senior figures from Plymouth, alongside representatives from the universities of Coventry and Anglia Ruskin, are attending the event at Stellenbosch University, which will examine the present entrepreneurial renaissance in Africa.

The three-day conference will also explore how academics and students at universities globally can contribute to continued growth and economic prosperity.

Professor Gideon Maas, Director of the Futures Entrepreneurship Centre at Plymouth University, said: “Africa is undergoing a sea-change in thinking, with support and opportunity gradually becoming available to people of all backgrounds. The economies of some countries in Africa are currently growing at a rate of 6-7% each year, and that is due in part at least to the growth of entrepreneurship. But it is important to create a continental culture whereby those businesses can continue to thrive, and universities have a vital role to play in influencing that.”

The conference will include keynote speeches from the four organising universities, and draw an academic and business audience from across the world. They will include delegates from universities in the UK, United States, Botswana, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Professor Maas, who hails from South Africa and Namibia and has worked in both the public and private sector across southern Africa, added: “Universities are a hotbed of enterprise and creativity, and can act as catalysts for social and economic change locally, nationally and globally. By embedding entrepreneurship, and with the benefits of our expertise, there is no reason we cannot work in partnership to give people across the world the knowledge and experience to accompany their ideas and enthusiasm.”

The Futures Entrepreneurship Centre was launched in November 2013 as a focal point for entrepreneurial education and research, and aims to work in partnership to provide a range of academic courses, support, mentoring and networking opportunities.

It is one of the University’s many initiatives forming part of its enterprise agenda, including three innovation centres in Cornwall and the Peninsula Growth Acceleration and Investment Network (GAIN). It also enjoys links with partner schools, colleges and businesses across the South West, and international partners such as the US-based Babson Global Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education.