Social Enterprise Programs: ‘Like Little Warts On A Business School’

The Skoll Centre at Oxford University

The Skoll Centre at Oxford University

What’s in store for the Skoll Centre? 

We’re basically morphing our vision and our mission so that each business takes responsibility for its social, business, environmental, and governmental impact. Our mission is really shaping that future by inspiring and supporting entrepreneurial leaders but also discovering knowledge and supporting research in the field.

Where does the center need to improve? 

We really need to be much better at really following what our students are doing once they graduate. We know what the cohort from five years ago is doing, but beyond that, we don’t know much about the career paths that our MBAs choose. So we’re really drilling down on that.

We also need a better understanding about the career paths for social entrepreneurship. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve had with students who say, “I’m really interested in this, what organization should I look at?” Business schools have been so oriented to careers in private equity and investment banking, that when students want to go this other route, career offices are completely stymied. They’re like, “Huh? What? We don’t know about that.”

A lot of my time is spent guiding student to those opportunities, so I think we need to do much better in looking at the ecosystem out there. We’re getting better at that, and it’s very important. That aspect is really critical for us.

What has the impact of the Skoll Centre been so far? 

The impact has been on the ecosystem. We’ve given over 55 scholarships to entrepreneurs who want to dedicate their lives to ramping up businesses that will have a positive outcome on the world, and it’s outstanding to see how many are actually doing it. That has a spillover effect into the entire MBA class and into Oxford.

The Skoll Centre is a brand, and it’s globally known among students who want to go to business school to do social entrepreneurship. It’s the No. 1 place to do this — kids come from Ivy Leagues in the U.S. specifically because of the Skoll Centre.

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