Small is beautiful

Full-time entrepreneurship courses at the University of Central England tend to attract mostly foreign students because of the focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, the multi-ethnic community in Birmingham and the lower fees.

As part of their MBA, students on the entrepreneurship course are expected to do an assessed joint presentation. This year the theme was "The effectiveness of small-business support services in the West Midlands". The judging panel had representatives from Business Link Birmingham, HSBC Bank, Birmingham City Council and The THES.

The winning team used role play to show how three people went about setting up a restaurant. Team member Amanda Gardner said: "We were a mixed cultural group, and that brought different perspectives and an appreciation of other avenues to follow.

"It was hard to focus on the topic at first and see what we were supposed to get out of it. In the end, we got a lot out of it and we understand the region a lot better now."