Since forming the Social Entrepreneurship Team in 2016, Dr. Li Connie and Dr. Kwan Ho Yan have dedicated their efforts to nurturing a new generation of globally responsible citizens. In their journey towards achieving this goal, the team has developed a robust social entrepreneurship framework with a unique blend of experiential and service-learning elements – a model that is not only an inspiration for HKBU students to serve the community, but also an impactful endeavour for the social enterprise community.

The team has adopted a three-stage student engagement approach in fostering social entrepreneurship education. The first stage offers a social entrepreneurship practicum course that provides students with practical experience of working in social enterprises as interns. The subsequent stage aims to deepen the bond between the students and their social entrepreneurs through global field trips, where they can exchange ideas and business sustainability models about social ventures with social entrepreneurs, both locally and overseas. In the final stage, students have the opportunity to engage with the community through the course "Community Development for Social Entrepreneurship," where they teach secondary school students the key concepts of social entrepreneurship, and develop viable social venture plans.

This distinctive social entrepreneurship education model motivates more than 30 local and overseas social enterprises to cultivate a social entrepreneurial spirit among 400 HKBU and secondary school students. Moreover, our students have contributed more than 13,000 service hours to social ventures in Hong Kong from 2019 to 2022.

The students expressed appreciation for the support they received from the team along this journey, praising their ability to teach the curriculum with relevant, real-life examples. They also enjoyed the opportunity to immerse themselves in the social enterprise industry. Some developed a good rapport with their practicum companies, while others have secured employment at social enterprises upon their graduation.

Dr. Li and Dr. Kwan have also played a leading role in advancing social entrepreneurial education far beyond the classroom. They were invited to showcase their teaching philosophy and pedagogy at the Community of Practice: Symposium of Education Innovation and Technology 2022, and also represented the Department of Marketing by speaking at the Health Management and Social Care Online Expo 2022, which was organised by the Technology Education Section Curriculum Development Institute, Education Bureau (EDB). The team’s synergy has resulted in a variety of opportunities to scale up social entrepreneurship at HKBU. They have secured two external teaching funds from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia and the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Also, the team is currently working on eight social entrepreneurship teaching cases as well as promoting social entrepreneurship via virtual exchange.

Dr. Li and Dr. Kwan have truly left their mark on the development of innovative and student-centered pedagogy to nurture social entrepreneurs, leading the way in social entrepreneurship education among universities, while helping to project HKBU in a positive light in the global community. The Selection Committee is therefore pleased to confer the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Team Teaching to Dr. Li and Dr. Kwan.