Small Business Charter accreditation for Queen Mary’s B-School
The SBC Award is a national accreditation, assessed by small business leaders, to recognise business schools which demonstrate excellence in supporting small businesses, student enterprise, and the local economy. The School will hold the award for 3 years.
Led by Dr Joanne Zhang (Director of Entrepreneurship Hub and Deputy Director Education), Nicola Persue-King (Business Development Manager), Emm Barnes (Strategic Project Manager) and Dominic Wong (Project Manager), the School, in collaboration with colleagues across the University, underwent a rigorous assessment to assess the depth and impact of its activities.
The panel were particularly impressed by the School’s wide offering designed to nurture student enterprise, with activity designed to develop skills embedded across the curriculum. A good proportion of teaching modules and learning opportunities involve SMEs, and the School’s enterprise provision is tailored to meet the needs of the student body, with the SBM Career Mentoring scheme, Industry Spotlight, SBM Entrepreneurship Hub, QM Social Venture Fund and the Student Knowledge Exchange Through Community Hubs (SKETCH) being particularly noteworthy.
Dr Joanne Zhang commented: “We are excited to obtain this prestigious accolade. The Small Business Charter accreditation signifies our strong commitment and dedicated work to entrepreneurship education for students, small business support, and local economic engagement. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the exceptional team at SBM and across QM for preparing the application over the last two years.”
Mike Noon, Dean of the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London said: “I am delighted that we have been awarded the Small Business Charter and extremely proud of the dedicated team behind our work supporting small businesses, student entrepreneurship, and the local economy. The accreditation recognises our expertise in these areas and, importantly, it will help us expand our activities supporting the growth of local businesses in the East of London”.
Flora Hamilton, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and CEO of the Chartered Association of Business Schools said: “We’d like to congratulate the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London on achieving the Small Business Charter. They have demonstrated their dedication to supporting local SMEs and embedding entrepreneurship into the school curriculum. It is fantastic that they use their links with regional stakeholders to create a framework for locally based SMEs, and we look forward to continuing to develop our relationship with them.”
In 2022, Queen Mary published its Civic University Agreement, a long-term commitment to be a force for good in East London, including support for arts and culture in the area and through employment and procurement practices. Queen Mary, and in particular the School of Business and Management, work closely with the local borough team to support growth and enterprise in our local region of London.
In recognition of this accreditation Alison Blunt, Deputy Vice Principal for Impact (Culture, Civic & Community) and Minna Ruohonen, Civic Engagement Lead said: ‘We are delighted that Queen Mary has been granted the Small Business Charter award as a recognition for our School of Business and Management’s commitment to supporting SMEs, student entrepreneurship and our engagement in the local economy. This is highly relevant to Queen Mary’s Civic University Agreement and our institution-wide civic mission as a place-based university in our locality. Thank you also to our civic partners at Tower Hamlets Council and the East London Business Alliance for their support with our application.”