The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CfIE) at the University of Bristol (UoB) has pioneered a set of world-unique degree programmes since 2016. Referred to as ‘the Innovation programmes’ it comprises 14 undergraduate degree pathways which combine innovation and entrepreneurship teaching with traditional degrees (e.g. MSc Physics with Innovation, MArts History with Innovation). Traditional disciplines such as Anthropology, Business Management, Computer Science, Economics, Psychology, and Theatre each offer a variant programme transforming their 3-year Bachelors programme into a 4-year integrated Masters programme in which ‘Innovation’ content is taught in each of the 4 years to the students as a single cohort; mixing students from those different disciplines into a single classroom and setting them collaborative design and entrepreneurship challenges. To the best of our knowledge, this remains a world-unique offering. These programmes are generating outstanding entrepreneurship and employability outcomes for our graduates. Based on our contact with our graduating students they are starting up at almost ten-times the national UK rate of youth entrepreneurship. Student ventures supported by CfIE have raised in excess of £20M since 2020 and created over 120 jobs. Using the 21/22 UK Graduate Outcomes data for Graduate Level Jobs and Further Study our CfIE graduates are outperforming the wider institution employability by 14% and outperforming every ‘non-Innovation’ version of those traditional programmes, including Computer Science and Business Management. We believe this is because of the exceptional entrepreneurship, venture-creation, employability, and freelance support we offer both within and beyond our curriculum.
Finalist
Entrepreneurship Course of the Year Award
The Bristol Innovation Degree Programmes
Finalist Entrepreneurship Course of the Year Award
The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CfIE) sits within the Faculty of Arts, Law, and Social Sciences at the University of Bristol - United Kingdom
"Where bold ideas meet real-world impact."
Engage on social media
https://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-bristol-centre-for-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/(Official CfIE LinkedIn page)
https://instagram.com/cfie_bristol(Official CfIE Instagram page)
(Official CfIE YouTube page)
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DCaHWQPkq/?mibextid=wwXIfr(Official CfIE Facebook page)
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Summary
Key People
Tom Ellson
Centre Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Kirsten Cater
Founding Director
University of Bristol
Peter Bartlett
Centre Education Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Daniella Jenkins
Undergraduate Programme Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Ben Hobbs
Postgraduate Programme Director (Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Don Parker
Postgraduate Programme Director (Digital Innovation)
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Dave Jarman
Postgraduate Programme Director (Executive Education)
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Gerasimos Balis
Pedagogic Research Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Cecilia Thirlway
Postgraduate Research Programme Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Valentina Vezzani
Partnerships Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Mark Neild
Runway Programme Director
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
University of Bristol
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to ALL our current teaching and professional services teams, we struggled to name them all here – and to all those who were part of the team along the way.
Thanks also to all those in the wider University and wider world who have and continue to support our work.
But the biggest thanks goes to our students, who have offered us their trust as we support them on what is an uncertain and challenging journey towards more entrepreneurial futures.
Images
Student working in the Centre
Students working in the Centre
Students at Showcase
Students and Staff
Students working in the Centre
IMPACT STORY
Impacting lifes
Our programmes change lives.
Alumni stories:
“As part of the Innovation degree, we were taught to learn from failures and to look for problems and opportunities in the market, which are both really important in a startup journey. During the final year of our studies, and with the support from the Centre for Innovation and the Basecamp team, Kaedim was founded. After winning the New Enterprise Competition of 2020, the very hard but rewarding journey started! Fast-forward four years, our team is backed by the best investors in Silicon Valley!”
(Konstantina Psoma, graduated 2020. Kaedim raised $15M in 2025)
“My Innovation degree was a brilliant foundation for my career, really setting me apart with hands-on experience and practical skills that helped me hit the ground running. From day one, I was able to be client-facing. The course gave me a real taste of the working world.”
(Harry Ellis, graduated in Geography with Innovation 2022)
“Innovation taught me invaluable skills that I wouldn’t have gotten solely from my physics degree. A few examples of these being working within a multidisciplinary team, leadership, and communication skills. All essential within any workplace. The pairing of the skills learnt from physics and innovation helped make me a more well-rounded employee.”
(Tom Knighton, graduated in Physics with Innovation 2020)
“The hands-on experience of running projects throughout the course gave me the confidence to consistently deliver high-quality and inspired results right from the start of my professional career.”
(Freya Noonan, graduated in Management with Innovation, 2024)
LEARNINGS
Lessons learned
We believe that entrepreneurship should not be seen as an exclusive or elite activity, it’s not reserved for the wealthy or the self-confident, but it is often perceived as such. Our biggest learning is that often the most impactful entrepreneurs do not self-identify with that title at the beginning of their journey. From the outset we have created an inclusive environment for all kinds of would-be changemakers; designers, activists, campaigners, consultants, and yes, would-be entrepreneurs too. We invite them in as ‘Innovators’ to create change and equip them with the skills derived from entrepreneurship so they can build the capability and confidence to act on the changes they want to see in the world.
By inviting a diverse array of students, from an array of divergent academic disciplines, into the same room – and then presenting them with both real-world challenges and professionally-authentic tools, you can empower and enable them for all kinds of changemaking; from founding startups to becoming industry-leading professionals, to being socially -purposeful citizens.
The biggest challenges to our programme have been bureaucratic; trying to do innovative things in a traditional academic institution. However, by having a compelling vision for the value of change, by engaging in the systems change required, and by acting intrapreneurially ourselves, we’ve been able to develop a genuinely pioneering programme which continues to inspire wider innovations in our institution and sector.
FUTURE PLANS
What's coming?
Our programmes continue to grow! We are adding additional 'with Innovation' undergraduate disciplines for the 2026/27 academic year, our Postgraduate Masters programmes have grown 3,000% since 2018 and we’re adding additional programmes this autumn and growing to around 300 postgraduate students per annum with these new programmes being our largest cohorts yet. We are also exploring new UG programmes and new Executive and Distance-Learning variations of programmes for new professional and international audiences.
To enable this continued growth, we are moving to a new £600M university campus – Temple Quarter – in the autumn of 2026 where we will have more space and more facilities, right at the gateway into the city of Bristol from the wider world.
We have also been challenged by our university to spread our pedagogic approaches to wider internal audiences, providing service-teaching, offering collaborative units and programmes, and initiating new challenge-based interdisciplinary units for students across the institution.
We also continue to deepen and enrich the existing programmes; we have been able to expand our prototyping provision within the first-year curriculum, we have added new content on design futures, on regenerative design approaches, and new final-year project options to get students beyond start-ups into policy-change and client-based consultancy.
