Bulletin No. 1, 2018

SVP04 SVP 02 SVP 03 SVP 02 SVP 01 Not all entrepreneurs are driven by personal financial gain. Social entrepreneurs are those who pursue novel business activities that have the potential to solve community-based problems. Riding on the growing interest in this business model, CUHK launched in 2016 a three-credit elective course called ‘Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investment’. Although it is part of the MBA Programme, the course is open to all postgraduates as well as senior undergraduates to support the emerging generation of social innovators from different backgrounds. In a typical university course, students only need to worry about writing a good paper or being well prepared for an exam. In this practical course, they must balance academic requirements with the demands imposed by their partner organizations. Students select their Social Venture Partners (SVPs) in the first week of the course and then in addition to attending weekly classes, work in teams as consultants for the SVPs. They need to come up with ways to improve operations and generate ideas for expansion. The final objective is to help these SVPs pitch their expansion plans to a panel of judges, who will award HK$250,000 to the team with the best plan. ‘Personal experience is the best teacher. The only way to know what it is really like to be a social entrepreneur is to work with one and think like one,’ said Prof. Kevin Au , one of the masterminds behind the course. As it turns out, the course is a win-win situation for everyone. Students learn first-hand what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur, while the SVPs benefit from new perspectives and ideas the students bring along. ‘Some relationships become so well established during the course that students continue to work with their social enterprise partners long after formal instruction has ended,’ said Professor Au. Auniversity prepares students so that they can go out into society and make a difference in the future. The beauty of this course is that they get the opportunity to make a difference right here and right now. Nurturing Social Minds Classroom Instruction Learning by Doing Forming Alliances Students are trained in consultation skills and learn from experience sharing by industry experts Each class is split into four groups, and each group chooses to work with a Social Venture Partner (SVP) 1 2 06 Chinese University Bulletin No.1, 2018