University of East London Homepage

Minister backs University of East London’s drive to support women entrepreneurs

Thursday 18 November 2010

From left to right, Pro Vice-Chancellor Selena Bolingbroke, Sunny Crouch OBE, Baroness Judith Wilcox

At an event held this week at City Hall, the University of East London demonstrated its unwavering commitment to women’s entrepreneurship and was supported in this vision by Baroness Judith Wilcox, Under-Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, who said that she was completely behind the University’s initiatives, urging businesses in the area to do their bit, too.

The event, which coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week, was hosted by inspirational businesswoman and former London Docklands Development Corporation Director, Sunny Crouch OBE, and attended by a host of women entrepreneurs from across all sectors including Carrie Longton, founder of Mumsnet, Lady Judy Moody-Stuart, of the Asian University for Women, and fashion designer Bunmi Olaye.

Sunny made clear the University’s intentions saying: "the University of East London wants to be the academic institution to produce more female entrepreneurs than any other,” adding that, “no one can deliver the energy of enterprise alone, so this is very much a partnership initiative.” The University is looking to secure pledges of support for future activity from sponsors through the Friends of Women’s Entrepreneurship initiative.

Baroness Judith Wilcox, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, welcomed guests to the event, sharing her observations on the current challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs: “To be an entrepreneur requires confidence, self-belief, a refusal to be defeated by banks, suppliers and often the family, who love you so much they prefer you to take the soft option and be satisfied. Belief in yourself must come from within. The role of the University is to be the enabler and supporter of the ingenuity of these high flyers.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Selena Bolingbroke, spoke of her vision for a Centre of Excellence for Women’s Entrepreneurship (CEWE) saying: “We are responding to the needs of our students and the local community in bringing together existing networks and support services into an online portal where women can receive the advice they need to grow their business. We will be creating opportunities for women to benefit from the lessons learnt, shared today by Sunny and Baroness Wilcox, through mentoring, networking opportunities and access to expertise.”

Research shows that women’s potential as entrepreneurs has not yet been reached. Women are half as likely as men to set up their own businesses in the UK and also half as likely as women in the US, yet there are over 700,000 small businesses run by women in the UK contributing over £50 billion to the economy every year, putting the economic significance of UEL’s ambitions into perspective.

For further information about the Centre of Excellence for Women Entreprenuers contact Project Manager, Linsey Cole: l.cole@uel.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

Information for screenreader users:

For a general description of these pages and an explanation of how they should work with screenreading equipment please follow this link: Link to general description

For further information on this web site’s accessibility features please follow this link: Link to accessibility information