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UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice is a partner within the project (opens in a new window)Enhancing female entrepreneurship in India (ENPRENDIA) (European Commission, Erasmus+ Capacity Building Action), with the main institution - Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT, India). (opens in a new window)Dr Dorota Szelewa is leading the UCD team. Enprendia, a consortium of European universities and institutions of higher education, enhances the entrepreneurial culture among the women of India. It’s designed to advance institutional strategies for gender equity and equality in Indian higher education. To date, Enprendia has reached more than 5,000 female students across India and continues to create awareness and share best practices for the advancement of female entrepreneurship and higher education.
Project Description
The main objective of ENPRENDIA is to enhance entrepreneurial culture among female population in Indian HEIs while promoting gender equality and gender equity – not only inside the walls of academic institutions but also extending it to civil society and their local communities. Indian society is characterized by miscellany in caste, religion, languages, festivals, attire, economic status and location, among others. However, for various reasons the representation of various groups of the society in terms of participation within the higher education system has remained historically unequal. The emphasis laid on providing an equitable access to opportunities to female students representing various diversified groups is highlighted in ENPRENDIA.
To attain our goal we have built a consortium of leading European universities and eight of the foremost higher education institutions in India. Together we will:
- Develop and advance institutional strategies for gender equality and equity in Indian higher education through a comprehensive analysis and transfer of EU best practices.
- Establish and reinforce gender equality through sustainable structures that bring together enterprise-universities and promote active participation of female population in society with the involvement of public and private stakeholders so as to create mechanisms that support start-ups and business initiatives.
- Facilitate activities between HEIs and schools and colleges of proximity to enhance entrepreneurial mindset and science among children and young people.
- Build an index system for gender equality in Indian HEIs within internal quality framework.
- Raise awareness and motivation to use identified best practices in gender equality through user-friendly videos and professional marketing tools.
- Manage adequately the enhancement of gender equality among Indian HEIs and Indian HE.T
A study visit in Dublin
The study visits in Dublin happened on the 13-14th of July. The presentations were also focused on EDI and women entrepreneurship but put in the perspective of the Irish context. Our guest speakers told us about the very regressive laws and practices that were, and still are in place, and the recent changes that are happening with the help of UCD. The visit to UCD Nova, an incubator for companies hosted within the university campus was educative and interesting. The two representatives of the Incubator gave a lot of information about the programmes they run and the support they provide to their incubates and the progress that the onboarded incubates have made so far. The Dublin visit ended on a cheerful note with the closing happening in the informal setting of Tropical Popical, a nail salon offering, on top of lovely nails, along with a space for socialisation and social actions. The first study visit was highly informative and fruitful thanks to the organisation of the GCU team (Rose Cawood and Dr Carolyn McMillan) and UCD team (Dr Dorota Szelewa, Dr Mary McAuliffe and Dr Aideen Quilty).
Links to Newsletters
(opens in a new window)NEWSLETTER NO 1
(opens in a new window)NEWSLETTER NO 2