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School of Business, Economics and Informatics receives Small Business Charter

The Small Business Charter is awarded to institutions that can provide growth enterprise and entrepreneurship support to help UK businesses thrive.

Outside of the Clore Management Centre building

The School of Business, Economics and Informatics (BEI) has received the Small Business Charter accreditation. The award will last for the next three years and will enable BEI to deliver the government-funded Help to Grow programme for small businesses.

To receive the award, business schools undergo a rigorous assessment to determine:

  • the effectiveness of their business support
  • entrepreneurship education
  • engagement with their local economy.

The application was a real team effort and included contributions from BEI academics, students, alumni, student mentors and Birkbeck Futures. Their impactful work is exemplified by the glowing feedback from the assessors:

“The value Birkbeck adds to their student business owners and the impact on their businesses is an order of magnitude higher than the assessors have seen elsewhere. Furthermore, the stature, relevance, and impact of Birkbeck’s research for policy markers is exemplary.”

Professor David Latchman CBE, Vice-Chancellor of Birkbeck commented: "I am delighted that our School of Business, Economics and Informatics has been successful in attaining Small Business Chartership. The Small Business Charter award is given to business schools that demonstrate excellent support for small businesses, entrepreneurship education and engagement with our local economy. I would like to congratulate Professor Geoff Walters, Dr Pamela Yeow and their team in achieving this milestone that recognises our strengths in delivering an impactful and valuable entrepreneur journey and policy-changing research.”

Professor Geoff Walters, Executive Dean of BEI said: “I am delighted that we have been successful in gaining the Small Business Charter for the next three years. This puts us in a position to deliver the Government’s ‘Help to Grow’ scheme from March 2022. There is significant funding attached to the Charter and it will allow us to hire mentors to work with representatives from small businesses and enable us to further improve our engagement with small businesses.”

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