Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses the operating process and participants' feedback of a network of European universities that was set up in 2004, initially to organise annual week-long conferences for the development of students' entrepreneurial competences within a European context and in intercultural teams. Named COEUR - Competence in EuroPreneurship - the project builds on three assumptions: (1) open change and process-orientation require entrepreneurial competences rather than managerial qualifications; (2) business planning builds on a frequently neglected prerequisite: business creativity; and (3) entrepreneurial culture may exist on an intermediate level: EuroPreneurship. Soon the concept was extended to be integrated into regular university curricula as a full semester course - the Business Creativity Module (BCM) - which was developed and implemented with the support of the European Union between 2006 and 2008. Until now around 1,000 European students have participated in various COEUR/BCM programmes. A recent survey among former participants confirmed that not only was their immediate impression genuinely positive, but also, with the benefit of hindsight and after the first experiences in their professional lives, students judged the core values of the concept positively and believed that they had profited from it substantially. By exposing the process and results of the programme, this paper aims to contribute to the awareness of what higher-education institutions can do to enhance the creative and entrepreneurial potential of their students, and possibly serve as an inspiration too.

The return of a hung parliament at the 2010 general election is a serious possibility. But due to Westminster's limited recent experience of parliaments under 'no overall control' there is little institutional memory in Whitehall or Westminster, and even less public understanding, of what the implications would be. This article sets out to analyse the principal challenges that would be faced by government, opposition, parliament and the media in the event of a hung parliament. Drawing on experience from Canada, New Zealand and Scotland, we discuss the difficulties that may arise during the immediate government formation process and in the course of making minority or multiparty governance work on an ongoing basis. We conclude that a hung parliament need not undermine political stability or effective governance, but that all actors would need to adapt their behaviour and should therefore prepare carefully for this eventuality.